System and method for text-based delivery of sales promotions with deferred text-to-call interactions

ABSTRACT

A system and method for messaging-triggered sales lead redirection which uses an interaction control server to facilitate initial communications between potential buyers and sales representatives of sellers. In an embodiment, the system comprises a triggering application installed on a mobile phone of a user (potential buyer), a media gateway server which provides context-aware advertising and through which potential buyers may be connected directly with sales representatives of a seller, and an interaction control server which controls the messaging between the mobile device and the media gateway server.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

Priority is claimed in the application data sheet to the followingpatents or patent applications, the entire written description of eachof which is expressly incorporated herein by reference in its entirety:

-   -   Ser. No. 17/229,251    -   63/166,391    -   Ser. No. 17/209,474    -   Ser. No. 17/208,059    -   Ser. No. 17/191,977    -   Ser. No. 17/190,260    -   Ser. No. 17/153,426    -   62/965,626    -   62/963,368    -   62/963,379    -   63/040,610    -   63/025,287    -   63/022,190    -   62/994,219    -   63/154,357

BACKGROUND Field of the Art

The disclosure relates to the field of computer-based communicationsystems, more particularly to the field of marketing and promotionsusing computer-based communication systems.

Discussion of the State of the Art

Currently over 50% of web traffic happens via mobile devices, and almostevery one of those mobile devices has a touch screen. However, whenpeople browse the web on a mobile device, they are presented with manyadvertisements offering financial rebates, discounts, and incentives inthe same fashion as desktop browsing; filling out a form and waiting fora return email. This is cumbersome on a mobile device and has not muchevolved since desktop web traffic was the majority.

A significant problem with messaging-based advertising is the lack of ameans for connecting potential buyers with sales representatives.Current methods provide a phone number to a seller or website link to aseller's product and rely on the potential buyer to take active steps topurchase the product such as calling the phone number or filling out anonline purchase form. Sales conversion rates would be greatly improvedif this process was simplified such that potential buyers simply neededto click on one or two text messages to be automatically connected witha sales representative for the product, and would be further improvedwith a means by which to provide the sales representative with thecustomer's information where the seller has had no previous contact withthe potential buyer and without requiring the potential buyer to providehis or her contact information.

What is needed is a system and method for messaging-triggered sales leadredirection which simplifies the process by which potential buyers andsellers contact each other.

SUMMARY

Accordingly, the inventor has conceived, and reduced to practice, asystem and method for messaging-triggered sales lead redirection whichuses an interaction control server to facilitate initial communicationsbetween potential buyers and sales representatives of sellers. In anembodiment, the system comprises a triggering application installed on amobile phone of a user (potential buyer), a media gateway server whichprovides context-aware advertising and through which potential buyersmay be connected directly with sales representatives of a seller, and aninteraction control server which controls the messaging between themobile device and the media gateway server.

According to a preferred embodiment, a method for messaging-triggeredsales lead redirection with enhanced privacy protection is disclosed,comprising the steps of: upon receiving an initial trigger at a mobiledevice connected to a network, the initial trigger comprising amarketing campaign identity: generating a trigger message using atrigger application operating on the mobile device, the trigger messagecomprising device metadata, the device metadata comprising an identityof the mobile device, a location of the mobile device, an identity of atrigger application on the mobile device, and the marketing campaignidentity; and sending the trigger message from the mobile device to aninteraction control server connected to the network, the interactioncontrol server comprising a non-volatile data storage device on which isstored a marketing campaign database and a multimedia message database;upon receiving the trigger message at the interaction control server:retrieving a marketing campaign associated with the device metadatausing the interaction control server, the marketing campaign comprisingmarketing metadata comprising information about products or servicesassociated with the marketing campaign; generating an augmented triggercomprising a short marketing message using the interaction controlserver; generating a targeted multimedia message from the devicemetadata and the marketing metadata using the interaction controlserver, the targeted multimedia message comprising an activecall-to-action component comprising activation metadata; storing thetargeted multimedia message in the multimedia message database; andsending the augmented trigger from the interaction control server to themobile device; upon receiving the augmented trigger message at themobile device: generating an augmented trigger message using the triggerapplication operating on the mobile device, the augmented triggermessage comprising the marketing campaign identity and an authorizationfor a media gateway server to receive and use private information aboutthe mobile device or about the user of the mobile device; and sendingthe augmented trigger message to a media gateway server connected to thenetwork; upon receiving the augmented trigger message at the mediagateway server: retrieving the multimedia message from the interactioncontrol server using the media gateway server using the authorization;sending the multimedia message from the media gateway server to themobile device via the network; and upon receiving the multimedia messageat the mobile device, displaying the multimedia message with its activecall-to-action component on the mobile device.

According to an aspect of an embodiment, the method further comprisesthe steps of: detecting an interaction with the active call-to-actioncomponent using the trigger application operating on the mobile device;generating an interaction message using the mobile device; sending theinteraction message to the media gateway server; and upon receiving theinteraction message at the media gateway server, connecting the mobiledevice to a sales representative associated with the marketing campaignusing the media gateway server.

According to an aspect of an embodiment, the device metadata furthercomprises user information comprising data associated with a user of themobile device.

According to an aspect of an embodiment, the user information isprovided to the sales representative prior to, or at the time of, theconnection with the mobile device.

According to an aspect of an embodiment, the user information comprisesan identity of the user.

According to an aspect of an embodiment, the user information comprisescredentials of the user and the identity of the user is confirmed usingthe credentials.

According to an aspect of an embodiment, the identity of the user isconfirmed by the media gateway prior to connecting the mobile device tothe sales representative.

According to an aspect of an embodiment, the credentials comprise eitheruser-provided information, biometric information, or certificateinformation.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings illustrate several aspects and, together withthe description, serve to explain the principles of the disclosedembodiments. It will be appreciated by one skilled in the art that theparticular arrangements illustrated in the drawings are merelyexemplary, and are not to be considered as limiting of the scope of theclaims herein in any way.

FIG. 1A is a system diagram of an interaction control server with TCPAcompliant mobile device.

FIG. 1B is a method diagram of an interaction control server with TCPAcompliant mobile device.

FIG. 1C is a system diagram of an advertisement campaign tracking andmanagement system using an interaction control server.

FIG. 2 is a system diagram of a standard TV ad campaign system managedregionally without using an interaction control server.

FIG. 3 is a system diagram of an email ad campaign system without usingan interaction control server.

FIG. 4 is a system diagram of a social media ad campaign system withoutusing an interaction control server.

FIG. 5 is a method diagram illustrating steps for defining, altering,and executing ad campaigns on multiple platforms and mediums using aninteraction control server.

FIG. 6 is a method diagram illustrating steps for specifying a TV adcampaign using an interaction control server.

FIG. 7 is a method diagram illustrating steps for specifying an email adcampaign using an interaction control server.

FIG. 8 is a method diagram illustrating steps for specifying a socialmedia ad campaign using an interaction control server.

FIG. 9 is a method diagram illustrating users interacting with TV adsusing an interaction control server.

FIG. 10 is a method diagram illustrating users interacting with emailads using an interaction control server.

FIG. 11 is a method diagram illustrating users interacting with socialmedia ads using an interaction control server.

FIG. 12 is a system diagram illustrating a Near-Field Communications(“NFC”) device broadcasting a referral link programmed into it,according to an aspect.

FIG. 13 is a method diagram illustrating methods for a NFC device tobroadcast a referral link programmed into it and a mobile device act onthe received link, according to an aspect

FIG. 14 is a system diagram illustrating a computer device such as alaptop, desktop, or mobile phone, utilizing a referral link, for thepurposes of a mobile device detection system to differentiate betweenmobile phones and non-mobile devices, such as personal computers.

FIG. 15 is a flowchart illustrating steps for a computer device such asa laptop, desktop, or mobile phone, utilizing a referral link, beingcategorized so that an appropriate referral link is sent to therequesting device.

FIG. 16 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary hardwarearchitecture of a computing device.

FIG. 17 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary logicalarchitecture for a client device.

FIG. 18 is a block diagram showing an exemplary architecturalarrangement of clients, servers, and external services.

FIG. 19 is another block diagram illustrating an exemplary hardwarearchitecture of a computing device.

FIG. 20 is a message flow diagram illustrating the flow of messages andoperations from a interaction control server specifying and serving atelevision advertisement, to a user completing all interactions withthat advertisement and all intermediate steps, according to anembodiment of the invention.

FIG. 21 is a message flow diagram illustrating the flow of messages andoperations from a interaction control server specifying and serving anemail-based advertisement, to a user completing all interactions withthat advertisement and all intermediate steps, according to anembodiment of the invention.

FIG. 22 is a message flow diagram illustrating the flow of messages andoperations from a interaction control server specifying and serving asocial media advertisement, to a user completing all interactions withthat advertisement and all intermediate steps, according to anembodiment of the invention.

FIG. 23 is a message flow diagram illustrating the flow of messages andoperations from a interaction control server specifying and embedding areferral link in an NFC beacon, to a user completing all interactionswith that link and all intermediate steps, according to an embodiment ofthe invention.

FIG. 24 is a method diagram illustrating the function of an applicationcapable of providing enhanced identity verification, according to anembodiment.

FIG. 25 is a diagram illustrating the function of an NFC beacon smartorder link, according to an embodiment.

FIG. 26 is a block diagram representation of an example of anenvironment for use with an embodiment of an interaction control server.

FIG. 27 is a flow chart representation of a method of using anembodiment of an interaction control server to create an ad campaign.

FIG. 28 is an illustration of an example of a Vehicle Details Page(“VDP”) generated by an embodiment of an interaction control server fordisplay on a customer computing device including an embodiment of a tapbutton indicator.

FIG. 29 is an illustration of an example of a VDP generated by anembodiment of an interaction control server for display on a customercomputing device including an embodiment of a call initiator.

FIG. 30 is an illustration of an example of a VDP generated by anembodiment of an interaction control server for display on a customercomputing device including an embodiment of a text message initiator.

FIG. 31 is a flow chart representation of an example of a method ofresponding to an activation of a call initiator on a product descriptionpage displayed on a customer computing device using an embodiment of aninteraction control server.

FIG. 32 is a flow chart representation of an example of a method ofresponding to an activation of a call initiator on product descriptionpage displayed on a customer computing device using an embodiment of aninteraction control server.

FIG. 33 is a flow chart representation of an example of a method ofresponding to an activation of a text message initiator on a productdescription page displayed on a customer computing device using anembodiment of an interaction control server.

FIG. 34 is a flow chart illustrating the use of an automotive adcampaign being utilized for both generic and highly tailored,user-specific interactions, while generating deep analytics of adinteractivity, according to an embodiment.

FIG. 35 is a diagram of a system for adaptive advertisement within amobile application, according to an embodiment.

FIG. 36 is a method diagram for a system of adaptive advertisementwithin a mobile application, according to an embodiment.

FIG. 37 is a message flow diagram for a system of adaptive advertisementwithin a mobile application, according to an embodiment.

FIG. 38 is a flowchart showing an exemplary conversion of SMS, voice,and email data, for an exemplary automotive dealer interaction.

FIG. 39 is a diagram of a system for adaptive advertisement within amobile application using speech recognition, according to an embodiment.

FIG. 40 is a method diagram for a system of adaptive advertisementwithin a mobile application using speech recognition, according to anembodiment.

FIG. 41 is a message flow diagram for a system of adaptive advertisementwithin a mobile application using speech recognition, according to anembodiment.

FIG. 42 is a system diagram of an data control module.

FIG. 43 is a system diagram of a routing system.

FIG. 44 is a system diagram of a media translation system.

FIG. 45 is a method diagram illustrating interaction control between twouser devices, according to an embodiment.

FIG. 46 is a method diagram illustrating interaction routing between twouser devices, according to an embodiment.

FIG. 47 is a method diagram illustrating media translation andcommunication between two user devices, according to an embodiment.

FIG. 48 is a method diagram illustrating transfer of communication fromone user device to another user device, according to an embodiment.

FIG. 49 is a method diagram illustrating voice communication from oneuser device to a voicemail system with a subsequent text-basedcommunication from another user device, according to an embodiment.

FIG. 50 is a method diagram illustrating authentication of TCPAcompliant mobile device with an data control module, according to anembodiment.

FIG. 51 is a method diagram illustrating routing of communicationsbetween a customer and one or more agents, according to an embodiment.

FIG. 52 is a method diagram illustrating conversion to SMS between acustomer and one or more agents, according to an embodiment.

FIG. 53 is a system diagram of an interaction control server comprisingan API and URL/UI generator.

FIG. 54 is a method diagram illustrating interaction control serverintegration with third-party ad campaigns.

FIG. 55 is a diagram of a customer's mobile device showing anadvertisement with a call-to-action communication initiator.

FIG. 56 (PRIOR ART) is a flow diagram of current methods used to receivea digital coupon from a business using a website.

FIG. 57 is a flow diagram of an exemplary method used to receive adigital coupon from a business using a tap-to-text button on a website.

FIG. 58 is a flow diagram describing the process of deferring a line ofcommunication with a seller through use of an initiation code.

FIG. 59 is a flowchart describing a method for sending a SMS to a uservia a script contained in header tags on a webpage which is generatedvia a user clicking on an advertisement or automatically upon a visit tothe webpage.

FIG. 60 is an exemplary screenshot showing an exemplary text messaginginteraction.

FIG. 61 is a message flow diagram showing an exemplary message flow forsales lead redirection between a mobile device and destination deviceusing an interaction control server.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The inventor has conceived and reduced to practiced, a system and methodfor messaging-triggered sales lead redirection which uses an interactioncontrol server to facilitate initial communications between potentialbuyers and sales representatives of sellers. In an embodiment, thesystem comprises a triggering application installed on a mobile phone ofa user (potential buyer), a media gateway server which providescontext-aware advertising and through which potential buyers may beconnected directly with sales representatives of a seller, and aninteraction control server which controls the messaging between themobile device and the media gateway server.

In some embodiments, the system is a cloud-based network containing aninteraction control server, a routing engine, an optimization engine, amedia translation server, a mobile application, a business entityportal, mobile and compute devices for business enterprise and customer,an initiation code authorizing data transmission, and an enterprisedatabase. Taken together or in part, said system optimizes customerinteractions by delivering context aware (e.g., containing metadata thatprovides a context for) text message, chat or email to customers; andwhen requested by a customer, retrieves the user's phone information,sends an SMS asking authorization to a chatbot which optimally routesthem with context, based upon a multitude of variables to a bestavailable resource as determined by a routing protocol, to handle thecustomer interaction. Accessing said system is achieved through a clickof an advertisement, of which acts as an infographic informing the userof intentions to contact, thus eliminating an input field in between theadvertisement and user and conforming to privacy laws. The system may beaccessed through web browsers or purpose-built computer and mobile phoneapplications.

According to one embodiment, a system and method for allowing seamlessintegration of an message-triggered sales lead redirection system intothird-party ad campaigns is disclosed. An message-triggered sales leadredirection system comprises an data control module, an interactionrouting system, and a media translation system. Users perform functioncalls via an application programming interface (API) to a URL generatorin order to receive a custom URL that may be hosted on a user'sadvertisement. The URL intercepts customer interactions with thatadvertisement and allows the customer and user to communication over thecustomer's and user's preferred method, converting the user'scommunication technology to the customer's communication technology andvice-versa. Furthermore, the user may request a generated user-interfacegraphic that is associated with the URL via the same or a differentfunction call.

According to one embodiment, the embodiment allowing seamlesscommunication between customers using a web chat integrated into awebpage and business representatives receiving and replying to thecustomer's web chat messages via text messaging over a mobile device.The system and method uses an interaction control server that redirectssales leads and converts the communications into other formats ofelectronic messages. According to various embodiments, a consumer viewsone or more forms of advertisement, e.g., webpage banner, Internetbrowser popup, billboard, poster, business card with QR code, etc., andinitiates interest in the product of service the advertisement ispromoting. The advertisement may be static or dynamic depending on themedium used. Dynamic (electronic-based) advertisements may change inreal-time based on a variety of factors not limited to, audience, time,location, device, facial recognition, etc. Initiation of interest by thecustomer (i.e., sales lead) may also take many forms. Non-interactivemediums such as posters, billboards, and flyers may have a specificphone number to call or QR code which auto populates a phone number ortext on the users mobile device and upon the user activating, the systemwill autogenerate a text-based communication to be sent to the caller inresponse. Electronic advertisements may have a button, hyperlink, orswipe function to auto generate a communication with the system. Someadvertisements may be limited to one or more communication methods,other advertisements may allow for all forms of communication.Communication methods used may be SMS, social media messaging, webchat(chatting over Internet communication protocols such as HTTP), phonecall, etc. Some embodiments make use of a chatbot, utilizing ArtificialIntelligence (AI), or natural language processing, or third partyservices that initiates a conversation with the user after the user hasinteracted with the advertisement or initiated contact. The chatbot mayask a series or questions related to the product or service in question.These questions may be stored in a database, predetermined, however,other embodiments anticipate natural language processing to respondin-kind to the user's questions. The chatbot may recognize when acustomer does not want to answer the questions posed and initiate atransfer to a sales agent for the desired product or service. However,in any situation, any and all pertinent information collected by thechatbot is forwarded to the sales agent thus increasing the salesagent's awareness and saving time for the customer.

As one example, the interaction control server receives one or more ofthe various forms of communication (e.g., text, call, webchat, etc.)from a customer via the customer's mobile device about some product orservice. This communication triggers a message, typically a SMS messagebut may comprise other forms of messaging, to be sent to the customer'sdevice with further information about the product and service as well asa follow up questions from an automated chatbot. This chatbot uses AI tocommunicate with the customer and request information from the customersuch as desired product features, price range, location, or othermetrics relating to the customer and the product or service. After thisautomated chatbot experience, the customer is presented with one or morecommunication options to continue the conversation with a real person,i.e., an agent or sales staff. The system finds an available agent viaone or more methods such as a round-robin style search function. Once anagent has accepted, the conversation communication will be transferredand any pertinent information collected from the chatbot experience (maybe metadata, customer profile information, desired product features,etc.) will be forwarded to the sales agent via the agent's or businesspreferred communication method. This enhances sales lead acquisition,retention, and closes.

According to one embodiment, an advertisement (e.g., webpage) for avehicle is seen by a potential customer. A tap text link—a URL thatrequests the customer's phone number—is present on the advertisement.The potential customer clicks on the tap text link and enters theirphone number. The phone number and vehicle information are received bythe system which then triggers the chatbot to respond to the potentialcustomer. The chatbot follows up with questions regarding credithistory, location, trade-ins, down payments, and/or anything that may bedesired information by a vehicle dealership. Additionally, all follow upquestions are related to the specific vehicle due to the transmission ofone or more unique identification numbers associated with theadvertisement the customer clicked the tap text link from. Once theseries of questions are complete, or upon request from the customer, thesystem forwards the potential customer to a sales agent along with anyand all pertinent information collected. A series of methods aredescribed herein allowing various methods to choose which sales agentreceives which call and in what priority. The chatbot may generate amessage to the customer with a link or button allowing the customer toauto-populate their communication device with the sales agent's contactinformation. The contact information may or may not be the actualinformation of the sales agent as the system may mask all customer andsales agent uniquely identifying information for compliance withstandards. All interactions and information collected may be stored inan analytics database for further use.

According to one embodiment, when a customer is using an electronicdevice such as a laptop, desktop, cellular smartphone, and other likedevices, the customer may be presented with a button or hyperlink totext, message, or webchat with a live representative. According to thisembodiment, the interaction control server receives the choice ofcommunication method (text, message, email, or webchat) from thecustomer and facilitates an immediate real-time conversion from thecustomer's preferred method of communication to SMS (or other mobiledevice messaging service e.g, MMS, imessage, RCS). For example, if thecustomer desired to use an Internet browser chat window, message inputthere from the customer will be converted to the messaging service ofthe live agent without the need for the agent to be on the same Internetbrowser chat service. Another example is if a customer desired toconverse over emails, the email content will be converted to the agent'spreferred message service format and replies from the agent to thecustomer will be converted into emails. Phone numbers and otheridentifying information is masked by the interaction control server.

The conversion of web chat—which is sometimes referred to as livesupport software, is a chat software integrated into a website to allowcustomers to chat with the business representative or the website owner.Live support on a web chat channel can be provided by both human agentsas well as virtual agents and chatbots. In many cases, both humans andlive chat tools work in tandem to improve the digital customerexperience. Furthermore, web chat is a type of Internet online chatdistinguished by its simplicity and accessibility to users who do notwish to take the time to install and learn to use specialized chatsoftware. Considering the ease of use and popularity of web chat,various embodiments described herein directly convert web chat entriesfrom a customer to SMS messages (or any other type of messagingprotocol) sent to a mobile device, typically used by a business agent.Messages sent from the mobile device are converted into web chat entriesfor the customer to view in the web chat screen.

One or more different aspects may be described in the presentapplication. Further, for one or more of the aspects described herein,numerous alternative arrangements may be described; it should beappreciated that these are presented for illustrative purposes only andare not limiting of the aspects contained herein or the claims presentedherein in any way. One or more of the arrangements may be widelyapplicable to numerous aspects, as may be readily apparent from thedisclosure. In general, arrangements are described in sufficient detailto enable those skilled in the art to practice one or more of theaspects, and it should be appreciated that other arrangements may beutilized and that structural, logical, software, electrical and otherchanges may be made without departing from the scope of the particularaspects. Particular features of one or more of the aspects describedherein may be described with reference to one or more particular aspectsor figures that form a part of the present disclosure, and in which areshown, by way of illustration, specific arrangements of one or more ofthe aspects. It should be appreciated, however, that such features arenot limited to usage in the one or more particular aspects or figureswith reference to which they are described. The present disclosure isneither a literal description of all arrangements of one or more of theaspects nor a listing of features of one or more of the aspects thatmust be present in said arrangements.

Headings of sections provided in this patent application and the titleof this patent application are for convenience only, and are not to betaken as limiting the disclosure in any way.

Devices that are in communication with each other need not be incontinuous communication with each other, unless expressly specifiedotherwise. In addition, devices that are in communication with eachother may communicate directly or indirectly through one or morecommunication means or intermediaries, logical or physical.

A description of an aspect with several components in communication witheach other does not imply that all such components are required. To thecontrary, a variety of optional components may be described toillustrate a wide variety of possible aspects and in order to more fullyillustrate one or more aspects. Similarly, although process steps,method steps, algorithms or the like may be described in a sequentialorder, such processes, methods and algorithms may generally beconfigured to work in alternate orders, unless specifically stated tothe contrary. In other words, any sequence or order of steps that may bedescribed in this patent application does not, in and of itself,indicate a requirement that the steps be performed in that order. Thesteps of described processes may be performed in any order practical.Further, some steps may be performed simultaneously despite beingdescribed or implied as occurring non-simultaneously (e.g., because onestep is described after the other step). Moreover, the illustration of aprocess by its depiction in a drawing does not imply that theillustrated process is exclusive of other variations and modificationsthereto, does not imply that the illustrated process or any of its stepsare necessary to one or more of the aspects, and does not imply that theillustrated process is preferred. Also, steps are generally describedonce per aspect, but this does not mean they must occur once, or thatthey may only occur once each time a process, method, or algorithm iscarried out or executed. Some steps may be omitted in some aspects orsome occurrences, or some steps may be executed more than once in agiven aspect or occurrence.

When a single device or article is described herein, it will be readilyapparent that more than one device or article may be used in place of asingle device or article. Similarly, where more than one device orarticle is described herein, it will be readily apparent that a singledevice or article may be used in place of the more than one device orarticle.

The functionality or the features of a device may be alternativelyembodied by one or more other devices that are not explicitly describedas having such functionality or features. Thus, other aspects need notinclude the device itself.

Techniques and mechanisms described or referenced herein will sometimesbe described in singular form for clarity. However, it should beappreciated that particular aspects may include multiple iterations of atechnique or multiple instantiations of a mechanism unless notedotherwise. Process descriptions or blocks in figures should beunderstood as representing modules, segments, or portions of code whichinclude one or more executable instructions for implementing specificlogical functions or steps in the process. Alternate implementations areincluded within the scope of various aspects in which, for example,functions may be executed out of order from that shown or discussed,including substantially concurrently or in reverse order, depending onthe functionality involved, as would be understood by those havingordinary skill in the art.

Conceptual Architecture

FIG. 1A is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary system architecturefor an interaction control server system and FIG. 1B is an exemplarymethod diagram thereof. According to a preferred aspect, systemcomprises a an data control module 4200, a routing system 4300, a mediatranslation system 4400, and databases 155. Customers 170 and their usermobile device(s) 130, agents 175, 177 and their business user mobiledevice(s) 132, other business user device(s) 134, and TCPA compliantmobile device(s) 136 used by agents 175, 177, may connect to interactioncontrol server system 160, typically via a cellular phone network 122,although connections may be made through other means, as well, such asthrough the Internet 125 via a Wi-Fi router for example. Similarly,customer user compute devices 150 may connect to interaction controlserver system 160 over a Local Area Network (“LAN”) or Wide Area Network(“WAN”), the Internet 125, a direct physical connection to anotherdevice, or some other network connection. System 160 may connect to3^(rd) party or external systems or components, such as CustomerRelationship Management (“CRM”) systems, Private Branch Exchange(“PBX”), traditional telephony call center agents, voicemail systems,and so forth, through media gateway server 180.

According to an aspect, a business may access a business user mobiledevice 132, business TCPA compliant mobile device 136, or business usercompute device 152 to enter or update a variety of business informationor business operational data that may be stored in a database 155, 172,173. Examples of the types of information or operational data that abusiness may enter include, but are not limited to: business name,branch name, location, types of product or server provided (e.g. vehiclemake/model/year, maintenance/repair/cleaning), item pricing, creditterms, special pricing promotions, business hours of operation,inventory information, promotional information, staff and employeetraining and skill information, and other business operational data.

According to another aspect, TCPA compliant mobile device 136, which isa device that is in compliance with the Telephone Consumer ProtectionAct (TCPA) of 1991, after an initial device power on sequence, mustconnect with data control module 4200 and request business user (agent175) authentication, business user authentication may involve user datainput, user data input may include what the user knowns (e.g. user name,user password, personal identification number, etc.), what the user has(e.g. mobile push authenticator, multi-factor authentication codegenerated from 3^(rd) party device such as GEMALTO™, GOOGLEAUTHENTICATOR™, or other device), something the user is (e.g. biometricdata from retinal scan, fingerprint, DNA sample and the like), or someother verification technique available to those skilled in the art. Oncedata control module 4200 has enabled communication of business usermobile device 136, business user mobile device may select customermobile device 130 from an interaction database 155, enterprise CRMsystem 172 or other data repository, through media gateway server 180and request to initiate an interaction through data control module 4200.An data control module 4200 will initiate communication through mediatranslation system 4400 which in turn will mask (“ghost”) business usermobile device 136 from customer use mobile device 130, and mask customeruser mobile device 130 from business user mobile device 136, setup aninteraction between customer user mobile device 130 and business usermobile device 136, interaction details may be logged in database 155.

Similarly, a customer may access customer user compute mobile device 130or customer compute device 150 to create and update user profileinformation that may be stored in database 155, 172. Examples of thetype of information a customer may enter include but are not limited to:name, address, contact information, preferred method of contact (e.g.mobile phone, email), payment (WELLSFARGO™, VENMO™, PAYPAL™) or creditcard information (e.g. VISA™, MASTERCARD™, DISCOVER™) other personalinformation such as interests or hobbies (e.g. playing board gamesincluding but not limited to Backgammon or Go, creative writing, sportscars, growing microgreens, brewing craft beer, camping, hiking and thelike).

Data stored in database 155 may be used by an data control module 4200,routing system 4300, media translation system 4400, or 3^(rd) party CRMsystem 172 to optimize business communications between customers and abusiness entity. Database 155 may take the form of a managed orunmanaged database, document-oriented database system, or a StructuredQuery Language (“SQL”) database. Examples of types of database softwarethat may operate include MYSQL™, ORACLE DATABASE™, MONGODB™, and others.It may exist as a distinct physical device or be operating on anothercomputing device that may perform other functions aside from operating,hosting and serving the database 155. If it is a distinct physicaldevice, the database may be connected over a LAN or WAN, the Internet, adirect physical connection to another device, or some other networkconnection.

In an aspect, system 160 may be able to determine certain information byaccessing media gateway server 180 such as a CRM system or CRM database172, mapping websites and applications. For example, system 160 mayaccess an existing CRM system which the business maintains and contains,for example, customer purchase history, customer preferred contactmethod (e.g. mobile phone, e-mail), customer preferred contact times,customer previous interaction history and so forth. Further, system 160may access a publicly available mapping website such as GOOGLE™, whichmay contain information about the business location, productavailability, hours of operation, phone number, etc. Thus, in someaspects, it is not necessary for the business to enter certaininformation through portal, as the information may be automaticallyobtained from media gateway server 180.

In another aspect, when a customer user mobile device 130 when promptedby a link (tap text link) or call to action 171 connects to data controlmodule 4200 and requests to communicate with a business representative175 (e.g. salesperson, support specialist, agent etc.), data controlmodule 4200 queries database 155, 172 for customer profile data, datacontrol module requests target routing information from routing system4300. Routing system will execute routing script that may query database155, 173 to access and send target routing information to data controlmodule 4200. An data control module 4200 will send a request to a mediatranslation system 4400 to set up an interaction (i.e., conversations174) between customer user mobile device 130 and business user mobiledevice 132. Upon termination of interaction, which may be initiated bycustomer user mobile device 130, or business user mobile device 132, andacted upon by data control module 4200 in concert with media translationsystem 4400, interaction details may be logged in database 155.

In an aspect, when a customer user mobile device 130 connects to datacontrol module 4200 and requests to communicate with a businessrepresentative (e.g. salesperson, support specialist, etc.), datacontrol module 4200 queries database 155 for customer profile data, datacontrol module requests target routing information from routing system4300. Routing system will execute routing script that may query database155 to access and send target routing information to data control module4200. An data control module 4200 will send a request to a mediatranslation system 4400 to set up an interaction between customer usermobile device 130 and business user mobile device 132. Oncecommunication is established, a different business user 134 maynecessitate a transfer of the interaction from business user 132 tobusiness user 134 and a subsequent termination between the customer usermobile device 130 and business user mobile device 132. An interactiontransfer 176 may be initiated by customer user mobile device 130, orbusiness user mobile device 132, and acted upon by data control module4200 in concert with media translation system 4400, interaction detailsmay be logged in database 155. Routing system will execute routingscript that may query database 155 to access and send target routinginformation to data control module 4200. An data control module 4200will send a request to a media translation system 4400 to set up aninteraction between customer user mobile device 130 and business usermobile device 134 132.

In another aspect, an interaction transfer may be initiated without theexplicit use of routing system 4300. In this example, business usermobile device 132 may select business mobile device 134 destinationaddress from an interaction database 155, enterprise CRM system or otherdata repository, through media gateway server 180 and request a transferthrough data control module 4200. An data control module 4200 willinitiate transfer through media translation system 4400 which in turnwill mask (“ghost”) business user mobile device 134 from customer usemobile device 130, and mask customer user mobile device 130 frombusiness user mobile device 134, setup an interaction between customeruser mobile device 130 and business user mobile device 134 and terminateinteraction with business user mobile device 132, interaction detailsmay be logged in database 155.

In an aspect, when a customer user mobile device 130 connects to datacontrol module 4200 and requests to communicate via voice with abusiness representative (e.g. salesperson, support specialist, etc.);data control module 4200 queries database 155 for customer profile data,data control module requests target routing information from routingsystem 4300. Routing system will execute routing script that may querydatabase 155 to determine target resource; and send target routinginformation to data control module 4200. An data control module 4200will send a request to a media translation system 4400 to set up aninteraction between customer user mobile device 130 and business usermobile device 132. Media translation system may mask information anddata so that customer user device 130 cannot be identified by businessuser device 132, and business user device 132 cannot be identified bycustomer user device 130. Should business user mobile device 132 notaccept the request to connect, data control module 4200 may requestanother enterprise resource via the routing system 4300 which in turnwill execute routing script that may query database 155 to determinenext target resource which will repeat until all enterprise resourcesare exhausted (i.e. no enterprise resource is available to accept thecall) or call has been accepted by the business user mobile device 132.Should all enterprise resources be exhausted, the voice call may berouted to a voicemail system corresponding to one of the enterpriseresources or a general voicemail box. When customer user device 130connects with voicemail box via media gateway server 180 and leaves avoicemail, or not, an electronic notification (e.g. text message) issent via data control module 4200 to business user 132 of customer userdevice 130 failed attempt to connect with a live enterprise resource.Business user mobile device 132 may send an electronic message (e.g.text) to customer user device 130 who may accept request or not. Ifaccepted an interaction (e.g. voice, text or other) may be set upbetween customer user device 130 and business user device 132 via datacontrol module 4200 in concert with media translation system 4400 suchthat media translation system 4400 may mask information and data so thatcustomer user device 130 cannot be identified by business user device132, and business user device 132 cannot be identified by customer userdevice 130; interaction details may be logged in database 155 or CRMsystem via media gateway server 180 which may be made available forfuture reporting and analytics.

In some other aspect, routing system 4300, through business user mobiledevice 132, may provide information to the business user of upcomingstaffing needs which the business user may accept or decline. If thebusiness has entered information such as incentive pay, routing system4300 may use that information to offer the business staff additionalmonetary or other incentives (e.g. future vacation day with pay) toaccept a shift schedule. Such incentives may be adjusted for busyperiods at the business, either automatically based on the business'shistory as stored in a database 155, or by retrieving information storedin a database 155 that has been manually entered by the business throughbusiness compute device 152 or business mobile device 132.

Now turning our attention to FIG. 42 illustrating an exemplary blockdiagram architecture for an data control module 4200. According to anaspect, an data control module 4200 comprises controller 4218, mediagateway server 4210, user device gateway 4212, routing gateway 4216,user profile data 4220, interaction data 4222, attribution data 4224,and interaction setup data 4228. In operation, controller 4218 mayconnect, for a bi-lateral data exchange, between media gateway server4210, user device gateway 4212, routing gateway 4216; may receive userprofile 4220, interaction data 4222, attribution data 4222; may provideas output call interaction data 4228.

In an aspect, customer mobile user device 130 that may include a smartphone, or table device, or similar user device capable of sending andreceiving electronic messages, may receive a CTA electronic message(e.g. text, chat, email or other electronic message format) fromcontroller 4218 via user device gateway 4212 which abstracts away anypotential communication protocol (e.g. HTTP, RTP, SMS, SIMPLE, TCP, UDPor other protocols that may be in use) that may exist between controller4218 and customer user mobile device 130 or customer user compute device150. A CTA may include a link to an online retail portal, a referral toa product or service website, directions to a store, discount couponcode, or some other information or content that may cause the customerto act in some way, for example tapping on an electronic picture,clicking on a link or the like; and may be a result of an advertisementcampaign or some other indication that a customer may be interested infurther engagement with business entity. Upon receiving CTA, a customerthrough user mobile device 130 may indicate desire to further engagewith business by interacting with CTA which may include clicking ortapping on electronic message or some other means that will result in anelectronic notification being received by controller 4218. An controller4218 upon receiving notification from customer user mobile device 130,may access customer user profile data 4220, customer profile data mayinclude name, address, phone number, email, preferred contact method,historical purchase information, customer tiering level (e.g. bronze,silver, gold), personal information (e.g. marital status, number ofdependents, net worth, interests/hobbies) or other data that may havebeen directly provided by customer or obtained by other means includinga business CRM system accessible via media gateway server 180, and mayaid the business in optimally handling the customer request to engagewith the business; may access interaction data 4222, interaction datamay include but is not limited to interactions that customer haspreviously had with business, brand, product, or if available competitorbusiness, brand or product, product or service purchased, amount ofpurchase, prior communications (e.g. text, chat, email, snail mail,voice call, call center interaction, in-person, telegram or othercommunication that may be in use) with business or business partner; mayaccess attribution data 4224, attribution data may include advertisingcampaigns run including media channel (e.g. TV, social media, near-fieldcommunication, in-store offers, targeted email), dates and times of adcampaigns, aggerate sales data associated with each advertisingcampaign, customer-specific sales outcome and any other data related tomedia and marketing efforts and associated business sales outcomes. Oncecontroller 4218 has a complete data set of the business-customerrelation, this is sent along with a route request via routing gateway4216 to routing system 4300.

In another aspect, media gateway server 4210 may provide referralinformation of a customer interested in receiving additional information(aka CTA) from said business to controller 4218, referred informationmay include customer name, contact information, business name, productor service of interest any other data that may be of use to optimizecommunication and business outcomes between customer and business.

Referring now to FIG. 43 illustrating an exemplary block diagramarchitecture for a routing system 4300. According to an aspect, arouting system 4300 comprises interaction routing 4310 subsystem andoptimization 4330 subsystem. An interaction routing 4310 subsystemfurther comprising a routing engine 4320, routing repository 4312,calendar availability 4314, routing scripts 4316, media gateway server4318, analytics data 4322, target route information 4324. Anoptimization 4330 subsystem further comprising optimization engine 4340,attribution data retriever 4332, call-to-action data retriever 4336 andinteraction data retriever 4334.

In operation, routing engine 4320 may connect, for a bi-lateral dataexchange between optimization engine 4340; may receive routingrepository 4312, calendar availability 4314, interaction history 4316,media gateway server 4318, analytics data 4318; and provide target routeinformation 4324. An optimization engine 4340 may connect for bi-lateraldata exchange with routing engine 4320, attribution data retriever 4332,interaction data retriever 4334, and call-to-action data retriever 4336.

In an aspect, routing engine 4320 receives a route request fromcontroller 4218, routing engine may execute routing logic that may beimplemented within routing script 4316, routing logic may take intoaccount sequential, ‘round robin’, or percent-based allocations todistribute to target or may utilize resource repository 4312, resourcerepository may include available routing resources including call centeragents, traditional IVR, voice portals, AI-driven chatbots or voiceportals, non-traditional agent sources including sales personnel, fieldsales, support specialist or other resources that may be able tointeract with customer; may utilize calendar availability 4314, calendaravailability may include available time from target routable resources(e.g. sales person, support specialist), calendar systems may in 3^(rd)party systems such as MICROSOFT OUTLOOK™, GOOGLE CALENDAR™, LOTUS NOTES™SALESFORCE™ CRM, SUGAR™ CRM; may utilize analytics data 4322, analyticsdata may include operational data, sales data, customer data or anyother data that may assist with routing decisions; generate target routeinformation 4324, target route information may include resources frombusiness entity traditional call center including but not limited to:traditional phone-based agents, multi-media (including email, chat,text) agents, AI-based or traditional interactive voice response (“IVR”)systems, AI-driven chat bots or speech bots; non-traditional resourcesincluding but not limited to field sales and support or other resourcesthat have access to user mobile devices 132 or business compute device152 and may include resource name (e.g. Jim Johnson), title (e.g. carsales advocate), destination address (e.g. 360.867.5309), and any otherinformation that may be useful in delivering interaction; and provideresults to controller 4218 to determine optimal target to delivercustomer interaction.

In another aspect, routing logic may be implemented within routingscript 4316 and use Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) techniques known tothose skilled in the art including deep learning algorithms andincorporate data resources as listed in previous paragraph along with anarray of other factors including but not limited to time-of-day,day-of-week, store hours, resource availability, service levelrequirements, previous customer interaction and transactions, customertiering structure, data from 3^(rd) party systems including but notlimited to CRM systems, location-based services, weather-services and soforth.

Note that this example is simplified for clarity, and that routingsystem 4300 may employ a much broader set of factors and variables, asdescribed elsewhere herein. The optimization engine 4340 may use anynumber of optimization algorithms, including machine learning algorithmsor others known in the art, to find routing targets to optimize businessoutcomes based upon a large number of variables presented.

Referring now to FIG. 44 illustrating an exemplary block diagramarchitecture for a media translation system 4400. According to anaspect, a media translation system 4400 comprises media translationgateway 4418, media translation server 4428. A customer user mobiledevice 130, other customer compute device 150, or a business user mobiledevice 132 may connect via a cellular network 122 and establish abi-lateral data exchange.

In operation, when the media translation gateway 4418 receives callinteraction data 4228 from controller 4218, it will establishinteraction control legs between business user mobile device 132 andcustomer user mobile device 130 masking any identifying information ofcustomer or customer user mobile device 130 and of business user mobiledevice 132 such that neither business user mobile device 132 norcustomer user mobile device 130 will know the particular identity of thedevice. In some aspects, the customer user mobile 130 device or businessuser mobile device 132 may be allowed to know some information about theuser endpoints which may be configurable by users of the system.

In some other aspects, business user mobile device 132 may withoutchanging applications or devices use text messages (e.g. SMS or otherprotocols known to those skilled in the art) to interact with andrespond to customer mobile device 130 or customer user compute device150 through media translation server 4428 which enables mediatranslation from one electronic form (e.g. SMS) of communications toother electronic forms (e.g. SMS, email, chat).

Now consider FIG. 1C illustrating a system diagram exemplifying anadvertisement (“ad”) campaign tracking and management system. A campaigndatabase 105 exists which may take the form of a managed or unmanageddatabase, document-oriented database system, or a SQL database. Examplesof types of database software that may operate include MYSQL™, ORACLEDATABASE™, MONGODB™, and others. It may exist as a distinct physicaldevice or be operating on another computing device that may performother functions aside from operating, hosting and serving the campaigndatabase 105. If it is a distinct physical device, the database may beconnected over a LAN or WAN, the Internet, a direct physical connectionto another device, or some other network connection. A campaign database105 may operate on a compute device which also operates, or connected toa device which operates, an interaction control server 110, which is aspecialized software operating on a compute device such as a personalcomputer or workstation computer, which may execute software, takinguser inputs, and utilizing a network adapter. The operating system ofsuch a computing device may be one of many options available toconsumers and businesses. Networks that an interaction control server110 may connect to may include at least one TV network 115 for thepurpose of being able to serve televised advertisements to customer TVdevices 135, a Cellular Network 122 for the purpose of receiving phonecalls and sending and receiving SMS messages from a user mobile device130 and from third-party SMS servers 140, and the Internet 125 so as toserve advertisements on social media platforms on a social media server145 and serve advertisements via email, websites or individual webpages, or through applications, to customer user mobile device 130 andcustomer user computing devices 150. A user mobile device 130 may be acellular phone or may be another type of mobile device, such as atablet, a smartphone or non-smartphone cellular phone, a personaldigital assistant, or even a personal computer 150 if the computerpossesses a phone number and is capable of receiving phone calls, theuser mobile device 130 and computer 150 may then be the same deviceinstead of separate devices as shown.

The manner of the advertisements and data sent from the interactioncontrol server 110 to the networks may include audio data, visual datasuch as video or images, textual data, recipient data, regionalspecifications, and other common data for advertisements inapplications, online, over TV, and over email. Advertisements may besent to, and reached by, a mobile device 130 or other computing device150 through the Internet via email, social networks, or internetbrowsing, or sent to a TV 135 by a TV network 115. The functionality ofa TV 135 may be utilized by a mobile device 130 or other computingdevice 150, or both, and all functionalities—TV viewership, phone callplacement, internet browsing, email viewing, and social networkaccess—may be accomplished by a single device over the Internet, or witha combination of Internet, cellular network or Public Switched TelephoneNetwork (“PSTN”).

In an aspect, an interaction control server 110 may also be part of aforwarding service, or operate a forwarding service while operating as aserver for forwarding phone calls from users, capable of responding tophone calls from a specified phone number with a stored SMS response.

FIG. 2 is a system diagram of a standard TV ad campaign system managedregionally without using an interaction control server. A TV ad manager205 may be a computing device with software for the creation andmanagement of TV ads, or this may in some cases be done manually, astelevision ads have been created since long before the modern Internetor personal computing became widespread and therefore in someimplementations this process may be done manually with rolls of film orother video data given to a TV network organization. However, in eithercase, the advertisement data or content may be sent to at least oneregional ad network manager 210, for instance a slightly alteredadvertisement or version of an advertisement might be run in twodifferent areas of the United States on national television, at whichpoints the ads are run on the TV networks 215 and viewed on user TV's220. The user may interact with this advertisement on a TV 220 byviewing it, and with their cellular phone 235 or even in some cases aland-line telephone place a phone call over a PSTN 225, or send a textmessage from a user mobile device 235 over a network such as theInternet 230 or the Cellular Network 122 to an SMS server 240 whichhandles the data in an SMS message to forward it to the appropriaterecipient, in this case being a number seen on a TV advertisement. Therecipient may be anything specified by the advertisement, such as a callcenter or phone line for a call-in TV show, or something else entirely,and moreover the advertisement on the TV 220 may have an email addressor website address for a user to navigate to either with a user mobiledevice 235 or with a computing device 245, to complete a transaction,sign up for a service, partake in a poll, or something else as desiredby the advertisement. When a plurality of regional advertisement networkmanagers 210 receive advertisements it is possible for them to differ,for instance different phone numbers may be displayed in otherwisesimilar advertisements, for regional call centers or regional shippingto be more easily accommodated, or for some other purpose that might behelped by region-specific advertising. In some cases a user may have amobile device 235 which is capable of viewing televised broadcasts overthe internet 230 rather than over a traditional TV network 215, withoutthe use of a TV 220, in which case the advertisement would be broadcastover the internet, if the network managers 210 choose to broadcast theadvertisement on the internet 230 as a video and audio stream.

FIG. 3 is a system diagram of an email ad campaign system without usingan interaction control server. A campaign database 310 exists which maytake the form of a managed or unmanaged database, document-orienteddatabase system, or a SQL database. Examples of types of databasesoftware that may operate include MYSQL™, ORACLE DATABASE™, MONGODB™,and others. It may exist as a distinct physical device or be operatingon another computing device that may perform other functions aside fromoperating, hosting and serving the campaign database 310. If it is adistinct physical device, the database may be connected over a LAN orWAN, the Internet, a direct physical connection to another device, orsome other network connection. An email ad manager 320 may communicatewith a campaign database 310, the connection being either due to beingon the same distinct device or due to a network connection such as aLAN, WAN, an Internet connection, or some other network connection.These communications comprise at least read and write communicationsfrom the ad manager 320 to a campaign database 310. An emailadvertisement may be specified by a user in an ad manager 320 either asa brand-new advertisement or by editing an already-stored advertisement,in either case these advertisements comprising at least an email body,email recipients, and sender address. The body of an email advertisementmay include any combination of any of textual, video, image, and audiodata, may be sent to multiple addresses at once, and may have dynamicdata that changes based on user preferences, status of a user within asubscriber list, user location or IP address, or some other attributethat may be useful for an advertiser to target or alter an ad based on.Email advertisements are sent to an email address or a plurality ofemail addresses over the Internet 330, whereby an email addressrecipient may read the email advertisement often with the use of eitheror both of a mobile device 340 or a computing device 350 such as apersonal computer. It is not required that a recipient actually read theemail, rather than deleting or ignoring an advertisement, nor is itrequired that an advertisement in this embodiment avoid being marked as“spam” by filters in an email service, nor is it required that aspecific email address recipient be a valid email address. It is notrequired in this embodiment that the status of an email as being read ornot be able to be tracked by an interaction control server 320. However,it is possible for the opening of an email to be tracked, for instancethrough the use of a single-pixel image hosted by a server which tracksboth the opening and the IP address of the opener, as is done in someemail campaigns.

FIG. 4 is a system diagram of a social media ad campaign system withoutusing an interaction control server. A campaign database 410 existswhich may take the form of a managed or unmanaged database,document-oriented database system, or a SQL database. Examples of typesof database software that may operate include MYSQL™, ORACLE DATABASE™,MONGODB™, and others. It may exist as a distinct physical device or beoperating on another computing device that may perform other functionsaside from operating, hosting and serving the campaign database 410. Ifit is a distinct physical device, the database may be connected over aLAN or WAN, the Internet, a direct physical connection to anotherdevice, or some other network connection. An interaction control server420 connects to the campaign database 410, either on the same device orover a connection to a separate device, to perform at least read andwrite operations on the database, for the purposes of reading storedcampaign data, and writing new campaign data, including both editing acampaign or creating an entirely new ad campaign. Social mediaadvertisement campaigns may be generated and utilized through acombination of, or only one of, a Cellular Network 430 and the Internet450, to deliver advertisements to users via social media platforms suchas but not limited to FACEBOOK™, TWITTER™, YOUTUBE™, and others. Suchadvertisements may appear on web pages on social media platforms, or invideos, or even sent to users via SMS through the use of an SMS server440. Another use for an SMS server is for user responses toadvertisements, as certain advertisements on social media platforms, andcertain functionality of social media platforms, utilize SMS messagingeither for user verification, or for user options to be set, or forpurchases, feedback, and other communication with an advertisinginteraction control server 420. A customer may view these advertisementsthrough the use of either or both of a user mobile device 460 or acomputing device 470 such as a tablet, PC, or hand-held computingdevice. A social media server 480 is the server which operates thesocial network that advertisements may operate on, and may be any serveroperated by any social network, so long as it provides a method foradvertisements to be uploaded and displayed to the social mediaplatform, for instance FACEBOOK™ allows businesses and individuals totake out advertisements, and in such an embodiment the interactioncontrol server 420 may be a third-party device or software, or it may bethe interface offered by FACEBOOK™ to create, edit, and trackadvertisement campaigns on their platform. A plurality of differentsocial networks may be utilized for this form of advertisement,including FACEBOOK™, YOUTUBE™, TWITCH TV™, MYSPACE™, TWITTER™, andothers, and such advertisements may further take place in video streamsrather than solely on social media feeds. Social media advertisementsoften take the form of pre-recorded video and audio recordings playedbefore or during a broadcast, as commonly seen on YOUTUBE™ and TWITCHTV™ platforms, but not only limited to those platforms.

FIG. 53 is a system diagram of an interaction control server 160comprising an API 5310 and URL/UI generator 5320/5330. This embodimentof an interaction control server 160 adds an application programminginterface (API) 5310 that is used by third-party ad campaign managementplatforms such as GOOGLE ADS™, FACEBOOK ADS™, and others like them. Itallows third-party ad campaign management platforms to integrate thecommunication initiator and functions thereof into an ad campaign setupprocess. For example, businesses using GOOGLE ADS™ and FACEBOOK ADS™ foradvertising campaigns are instructed to use each platform's step-by-stepprocess to set up an advertisement. The business fills out a series offields and options for each product or service during the process.During one step of the process, a business is instructed to type a URLleading to the product's or service's webpage hosted on the business'sdomain, i.e., the link for which the ad is targeted. The business'sdomain may, however, be hosted by GOOGLE MY BUSINESS™ and others likeit. The aforementioned step is now appended by a function call of theAPI 5310, whereby a URL generator 5320 takes the input URL and producesa new URL that redirects an ad click through an interaction controlserver 160, essentially intercepting the ad click before forwarding theuser to the original input URL. The purpose of the intercepted ad clickis to provide a means for implementing routing and conversion ofmessage-triggered sales leads.

In more detail, the API backend 5310 receives a request via the Internet125 from a user 150/152. This user can be person who has chosen to usethe API 5310 and correctly implements the function calls. The requestincludes the user's original URL that points to the specific product orservice the request is for. The URL generator 5320 generates a new andunique URL and associates both the original and URLs together and storesthem in memory, i.e., a database 155. In the case where domain-levelrestrictions are enforced, boiler-plate HTML code with a script pointingthe URL is generated; the HTML code allows for the domain-restricteduser to redirect to an authorized domain before the user isautomatically forwarded by the script to the URL. The API 5310 thenreturns the URL, or HTML code to the user. Users may then integrate theURL or HTML code as desired and wait for a customer to interact with theURL link. Upon initiation triggered by a customer, i.e., clicking orpressing on the URL link or HTML coded webpage, the desired method ofcommunication between the customer (the one who clicked or pressed onthe link) and the user (the one who created the advertisement with therequested URL) is facilitated by the interaction routing system 4300 andmedia translation system 4400.

In other words, the advertisement would allow a user on the frontend tohave the option to text, webchat, or email a business or salesrepresentative directly from the advertisement itself. On the backend,businesses using third-party ad campaign management platforms would nowbe presented with an option during advertisement set up to allow thismessage-triggered sales lead redirection on each advertisement. Inparticular, each individual product and service may comprise a distinctURL that specifically allows or limits one or more types ofcommunication or the conversion thereof, directs to a specificsalesperson, or other feature of the interaction control server 160 aslaid out in other present figures as disclosed herein.

Another aspect of the embodiment allows for specific communicatorinitiator buttons inside product or service pages hosted on third-partywebsites, not necessarily a third-party ad campaign. For example,AMAZON™ is a third-party seller of thousands of products, all of whichcould have a unique URL allowing customer's to inquiry about a producton the website with either an AMAZON™ representative or the manufactureof the product without ever leaving amazon.com. While amazon.com isarguably the most visited North American e-commerce website, anye-commerce website, or any website for that matter, may use the API 5310to host call-to-action buttons (i.e., communicator initiators).

One generic use case is the auto sales industry. Each vehicle may have aunique advertisement with a unique URL containing information about thespecific ad, that when a customer clicks to communicate with thebusiness, the business receives that information and is ever-moreprepared to close the sale. A specific use case within the auto salesindustry is a customer interested in a specific used vehicle. During anInternet search on his or her mobile device 5510 for that vehicle, anadvertisement for the vehicle is displayed, the advertisement comprisinga “text us now” button 5520, i.e., link, as shown in FIG. 55 . Thecustomer clicks the “text us now?” button and his or her default mobilemessaging application opens with (or without according to one aspect) adefault message prepopulated. The default message may be along the linesof “Hi, I'm interested in specific vehicle.” Wherein the “specificvehicle” is the vehicle from the advertisement. Now, depending on howthe business set up the interaction control server 160, the incomingtext message may go into a round-robin process looking for an availablesalesperson, or may be converted into an email or webchat, or anycombination of communication technologies. The customer never had toleave the advertisement to communicate about the product or serviceadvertised.

One optional aspect of various embodiment comprises a UI generator 5330.This aspect allows a business to stipulate the desired dimensions,colors, text, and other features of the communication initiator, i.e.,call-to-action button, during the third-party ad campaign managementplatforms advertisement set up procedure. This is made possible byanother API 5310 function call and a UI generator 5330.

FIG. 54 is a method diagram illustrating interaction control serverintegration with third-party ad campaigns. In the first step S401, aninteraction control server receives a request for a call-to-action (CTA)link, and optionally, a corresponding UI graphic from a third-party adcampaign management platform or other entity. Then a check is performedif links to outside domains are allowed by the third-party ad campaignplatform 5402. If the request comes from an entity that enforcesdomain-level restrictions, i.e., links may not point outside specifieddomains, then the interaction control server will generate HTML codecomplete with a script pointing to the generated URL 5404. Otherwise, noHTML code or script is necessary, and a CTA URL is generated 5403. Bothsteps lead to the generated content being returned to the origination ofthe request via the API, whereby the content is inserted, integrated, orotherwise implemented into the requesting party's advertisement 5405.The entity requesting the URL may automate the importing of the URL intothe advertisement or it may be done manually. Subsequently, after theadvertisement comprising the CTA link is live, meaning Internet usersmay see and interact with the advertisement, and an Internet user theninteracts with the advertisement 5406, the interaction control serverwill trigger the appropriate communication conversions and routing 5407.

FIG. 56 (PRIOR ART) is a flow diagram of current methods used to receivea digital coupon from a business using a website. This diagram is anexample of current methods in the art to give coupons, free trials, andvouchers to customer's via email or text. A customer visits a business'swebsite 5601, and sees a button, advertisement, or link for a coupon,free trial, or vouchers. The customer must click on such a link, anexample may be a “free pass” link 5602. Typically, the customer is thentaken to a webpage to fill out a lengthy form to include fields such asfirst name, last name, address, zip code, email, phone number, amongother fields 5603. The customer must then click submit 5604 and wait foran email or text 5605.

FIG. 57 is a flow diagram of an exemplary method used to receive adigital coupon from a business using a tap-to-text button on a website.According to one embodiment, a customer visits a business's website 5701and sees a call-to-action button, i.e., tap-to-text button, for acoupon, free trial, or voucher. The tap-to-text button may be replacedwith other words or graphics such as “Get free pass” button or link5702. The link automatically opens the customer's mobile text messagingapplication with a prepopulated text message to the business, wherebythe customer must simply press “send” 5703. The sent text messagetriggers a return text message 5704 generated by the system comprisingsome form of the coupon, free trial, or voucher. The form may be agraphic sent over multimedia messaging service (MMS), a uniform resourcelocator (URL) link, a QR code, an alphanumeric code, text, or any othertype of media possible to send over a messaging service.

FIG. 58 is a flow diagram describing the process of deferring a line ofcommunication with a seller through use of an initiation code (keyword,phrase, or button) which allows a user to initiate a conversation at anypoint in time on or after receiving a generated SMS by a chatbotcontaining the advertisement along with an initiation code for phonecommunication. The webpage containing the advertisement information isgenerated upon the user clicking the ad 5801, at which point the user'scustomer data is retrieved from the database 5802 and details regardingthe advertisement are also retrieved 5803. Upon retrieval from thedatabase the advertisement details are sent to the user via SMS,containing with it (alongside the advertisement information) aninitiation code which may be a keyword, phrase, link, or buttondisclosed in the contents of the SMS. The initiation code is a requiredfield for initiating a call request to the seller—when the chatbotreceives the initiation code from the user via text message 5804 a fetchrequest 5805 is sent to a database which contains the seller'sinformation (including phone number) upon which a phone call isinitiated between the phone of the customer and seller 5806. Theinitiation code as described herein, which is not a unique code and thus(as it pertains to the design of the chatbot) does not have anexpiration allowing it to be sent to the chatbot at a time/date afterthe initial request for communication 5801. This allows the customer tosend a request for retrieval of the seller data from the database at anypoint of their choosing upon receiving the initial SMS from thechatbot—for instance, if the seller is not available at the time ofrequesting the call.

FIG. 59 is a flowchart describing a method for sending a SMS to a uservia a script contained in header tags on a webpage which is generatedvia a user clicking on an advertisement or automatically upon a visit tothe webpage. When the user clicks on the advertisement (or visits thewebpage, depending on the configuration) 5901 a Hyper Text MarkupLanguage (HTML) script contained in the header of the webpage is runwhich captures the user's information via Mobile Station IntegratedServices Digital Network (MSISDN) from the user's mobile data carrier,or through Caller ID (CID) or Caller ID Name (CNAM) technology 5902. Thescript may be located on a separate popup webpage. When the script isrun, it sends a put request to a database 5903 storing the user'sinformation including at least the user's mobile phone number. In someembodiments, the popup may be a request for authorization to captureprivate information such as the user's telephone number and/or totransmit the telephone number to an advertiser associated with thewebpage, in which case the user's clicking of a link or button on thepopup constitutes authorization to capture the private information. Thetelephone number of the mobile device visiting the webpage may becaptured via MSISDN information from the user's mobile data carrier, orthrough CID (caller-id) or CNAM (caller—ID-name) technology, of whichauthorizes the user's phone number and name (depending onimplementation) to be accessed by a third-party seller or agent. Forexample, where the interaction control server is a facilitator of achatbot, which is sent the user data via the script, generates aprepopulated SMS containing advertisement information or coupon, whichis then sent to the user 5904. This method allows for data to be sent tothe database upon the user clicking said advertisement—the user did notneed to interact with the HTML webpage to initiate the chatbot.

FIG. 60 is an exemplary screenshot showing an exemplary text messaginginteraction. When a mobile phone user clicks on an advertisement on awebpage, the system generates an initial text message 6001 sent by achatbot containing a disclaimer in compliance with privacy laws,notifying the user that clicking on the link 6002 will authorizecollection of private information. In some embodiments, the initial SMS6001 will contain a link 6002 containing a URL. When the link is clickedby the mobile phone user, the URL is accessed. The URL is a landing pagewhich contains an automated script. The user does not see this messagegenerating script executing on his screen as it is contained in headertags of the HTML for said landing page. The script captures thetelephone number from which the mobile device is calling, stores it, andgenerates a second SMS 6004 containing the advertising content andeither a “call now” or a deferred-text-to-call code, link, or keyword6005, which, when texted back by the user will initiate an audioconnection between the advertiser and the user. The audio connection maybe a telephone call in which the system dials both the advertiser andthe user on the same line. In some embodiments, the initial text messagewill not contain a link 6002, but instead will request a response to thetext message. A response from the user 6003 will trigger the capture ofthe user's telephone number and initiate sending of the second textmessage containing the advertisement 6004.

The system by which this method takes place uses the system as laid outin FIG. 1A and other figures. The coupon, free trial, or voucher textmessage may be stored in a database 155 and be sent out via theinteraction control server 160 upon receipt of the text message sent bythe customer's mobile device 130/150. Additionally, once the textmessage from the customer is received by the interaction control server160, follow up text messages may be automatically sent to the customerasking for additional information such as zip code, name, and emailaddress. Links to open the map application or a website with a mapembedded may be sent to the customer as well in order to show locationsof interest related to the coupon, free trial, or voucher. Reminders touse the coupon, free trial, or voucher may also be automatically sent tothe customer's mobile device as desired by setting configuration fileswithin the interaction control server 160. The call-to-action button onthe business's website may be implemented manually by adding programmingcode, or by using the system and method disclosed in FIGS. 53-55 ,utilizing the API and a URL.

FIG. 61 is a message flow diagram showing an exemplary message flow forsales lead redirection between a mobile device and destination deviceusing an interaction control server. A trigger generator 6101 generatesan initial trigger 6005 which is received at a user mobile device 130,the user of the user mobile device 130 being a potential customer of aproduct or service. The trigger generator 6101 is associated with amarketing campaign, and may be any system previously discussed which iscapable of sending a message to, triggering a sensor or device on, orcausing a change in an application installed on the user mobile device130. For example, trigger generators may be QR codes scanned by themobile device, near field communication (NFC) devices, a uniformresource locator (URL) clicked on inside a web browser, a text messagereceived by the mobile device 130, etc. The initial trigger 6005comprises an identity either of the trigger generator 6101 or of themarketing campaign with which the trigger generator 6101 is associated.

Upon receipt of the initial trigger, an application on the user mobiledevice generates a trigger message 6010 comprising device metadata. Thedevice metadata comprises information about the mobile device and theuser of the mobile device that may be used to provide more targetedinformation to the user of the mobile device about products and servicesthat might be offered in the marketing campaign such as the identity ofthe mobile device, a location of the mobile device, an identity of atriggering application on the mobile device, the identity of the triggergenerator 6101 or marketing campaign, information about the user'sinterests, hobbies, income, home and/or business address, and similarinformation. The user mobile device sends the trigger message 6010 tothe interaction control server 160.

The interaction control server 160 receives the trigger message 6010 andretrieves the marketing campaign with which the initial trigger 6005 isassociated. The marketing campaign comprises marketing metadata that maybe used to market products and/or services such as seller information,sales representative phone numbers, sales representative areas ofoperation, associations of sales representatives with certain products,services, or specialties, detailed information about the products orservices offered, information about sports, hobbies, trades,professions, or other categories in which the products or services maybe useful, and other information which can be used to provide targetedmarketing to certain types of persons who may be interested in theproducts or services. The interaction control server 160 matchesinformation in the device metadata and marketing metadata to generate asales pitch targeted to the user of the mobile device. The sales pitchcomprises a short marketing message that can be sent to, and displayedon, the mobile device, such as a text message containing the shortmarketing message and a clickable link or button, plus a targetedmultimedia message which contains further detail about the productsand/or services in the marketing campaign and a call-to-action link orbutton, the further detail having been selected to be of particularinterest to the user based on the device metadata. The interactioncontrol server 160 stores the sales pitch in a marketing campaigndatabase. The interaction control server 160 generates an augmentedtrigger 6015 comprising the short marketing message and sends it to themobile device 130.

The user mobile device 130 receives the augmented trigger 6015 andgenerates an augmented trigger message 6020 comprising an authorizationfor a media gateway server to receive and use private information aboutthe mobile device or about the user of the mobile device. The mobiledevice sends the augmented trigger message 6020 to a media gatewayserver 180.

The media gateway server 180 is configured to retrieve and delivermarketing media for one or more products and/or services. Depending onconfiguration, the media gateway server 180 may be a third partyadvertising server or may be operated by the same entity that operatesthe interaction control server 160. However, in this embodiment, it isassumed that the media gateway server is a third party server capable ofproviding untargeted advertisements associated with the marketingcampaign to web browsers and/or mobile device apps. The media gatewayserver 180 receives the augmented trigger message 6020 from the usermobile device 130, identifies the marketing campaign and requests thetargeted multimedia message from the interaction control server 160.Instead of sending an untargeted advertisement for a product or serviceassociated with the marketing campaign to the user mobile device, themedia gateway sends a request 6025 to the interaction control server 160for the targeted multimedia message, and optionally for the devicemetadata or portions thereof, the request including the authorization ofthe augmented trigger message as credentials to allow the media gatewayserver 180 to receive and use personal information of the user mobiledevice 130 and/or the user of the user mobile device 130. Theinteraction control server 160 sends back the targeted multimediamessage 6030 along with any requested device metadata. The media gatewayserver sends the targeted multimedia message 6035 with itscall-to-action component to the user mobile device 130. If the triggerapplication of the user mobile device 130 detects an interaction withthe call-to-action component of the targeted multimedia message, theuser mobile device generates an interaction message and sends it 6040 tothe media gateway server 180. If device metadata has not been previouslyrequested, the media gateway server can request it at this point 6045.If device metadata has been requested, it can be forwarded on to a salesrepresentative prior to, or during, establishment of a connectionbetween the user of the user mobile device 130 and the salesrepresentative 6102.

As a final step, the media gateway server 180 establishes a connectionbetween the user mobile device 130 and a destination device (e.g., thecomputer or phone of a sales representative) 6102 using informationcontained in the marketing campaign. The connection may be any type ofcommunication including, but not limited to, a phone call, a real-timechat, text messaging, or a combination thereof. The advantages of usingan interactive control server as described above are that targetedadvertisements can be substituted for untargeted advertisements, thetargeted advertisements being based on information about the user of themobile device, authorization can be obtained from the user for the mediagateway to receive and use the user's personal information in compliancewith the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), and the user can beconnected directly with a sales representative that specifically handlesthat type of product, service, or client based on the user's personalinformation.

Detailed Description of Exemplary Aspects

FIG. 5 is a method diagram illustrating steps for defining, altering,and executing ad campaigns on multiple platforms and mediums using aninteraction control server. First, a user accesses an adaptiveinteraction control server 505, which is a software on a computationaldevice that is connected to a PSTN, the Internet, and has an interfaceto at least one TV network in order to manage approved TV advertisementson a given television channel. With the use of an ad campaign databaseor datastore, which may be one of many database types includingMONGODB™, SQL™, ORACLEDB™, or others, the adaptive interaction controlserver serves the user a list of saved/active campaigns 510, if any. Ifany are available to the user, the user may select a campaign orcampaigns to modify or may create a new campaign 515. Creation of a newcampaign, or editing of a previous campaign, requires that an adaptativeinteraction control server have read and write permissions to anadvertisement database, and requires that the user have access to thesefunctionalities. Through either editing of a campaign or creation of anew campaign by a user, a campaign is defined for use in any of or acombination of TV, email, social media, or other formats 520, withcampaign specifications allowing for alterations or dynamic portions ofan advertisement based on region, if applicable 525. In this way, forinstance, an advertisement may be made for different regions based on IPaddress, or user account name on a social media platform, or emailaddress name, or region of their TV network, to provide for differingimages, text, video, or audio, or some combination thereof. An examplemay be region-specific phone numbers for more local contact centers,warehouses, or stores, in a TV advertisement. After region settings, ifany, are specified by a user, the campaign dates and time range(s) areset 530, for instance an advertisement on social media platforms thatcoincides with a certain political election season but turns off outsideof the election season, or an advertisement for a new TV show that stopsairing on TV networks after a certain date when the show is released.The adaptive interaction control server may adapt campaigns to differingregions and user platforms and devices as applicable, using GPS, IPaddress mapping 535, as mentioned, and store these alterations alongwith the rest of the campaign data, saving the ad campaign in thedatabase 540. Finally, the ad campaign may then be run according to userspecifications, across the specified platforms and regions at thespecified times and time range(s) 545.

FIG. 6 is a method diagram illustrating steps for specifying a TV adcampaign using an interaction control server. First a user or multipleusers specify ad content, e.g. from recorded video from a commercialvideo shoot after editing 605, but the advertisement content may be fromother sources as well, for instance it may be designed in video creationsoftware, photo editing software, text editing software, somecombination of these, or some other source entirely, as the format ofthe advertisement is always able to at worst be recorded manually if itis in an otherwise unsupported format by a TV network's standards.Either the finished formatted advertisement, or the unformatted rawadvertisement data, or both, may be specified by the user. The user orusers may then serve the ad to a single or plurality of TV networks orregional network managers and stations 610, either for distribution toan entire network or for altered or dynamic advertisements to bedistributed to different regions or locales for advertising, such as aphone number that is different for specific regions where theadvertisement appears. Television networks, regional managers andstations, or both, run the specified ad or ads with region-specificcontent (e.g. different phone numbers for different regions) 615 at thespecified times or time ranges, as necessary, and when the customers seethe ad on TV, the base interaction with the TV advertisement is complete620. Further interaction such as calling a phone number, visiting awebsite, downloading an app, going to a physical location such as aretail outlet, or more, may be possible, but is not required orstandardized across television advertisements as far as specifying theadvertisement itself is concerned. However, according to an embodiment,customers may call a number associated with a TV ad made and utilized inthis way, which may or may not be a region-specific phone number oradvertisement as previously specified, and may be recorded as havingcalled a number associated with TV ad, for analytics 625. As shown inFIG. 9 , the phone number is utilized to simplify user interaction andprovide more complete analytics on users influenced or taking action dueto an advertisement, according to a preferred embodiment. It is possiblefor television to be viewed on a mobile device or other computingdevice, and as such a television in this embodiment may be understood asany device capable of viewing television broadcasts or televisionbroadcasts viewed over the internet or any other network on a computingdevice.

FIG. 7 is a method diagram illustrating steps for specifying an email adcampaign using an interaction control server. First a user may access analready-created advertisement campaign in an advertisement campaigndatabase, or create a brand new advertising campaign 705. Examples oftypes of database software that may operate include MYSQL™, ORACLEDATABASE™, MONGODB™, and others. It may exist as a distinct physicaldevice or be operating on another computing device that may performother specified functions aside from operating, hosting and serving thecampaign database. If it is a distinct physical device, the database maybe connected over a LAN or WAN, the Internet, a direct physicalconnection to another device, or some other network connection. Once anad campaign is read from the database and prepared for editing, or a newcampaign is created and ready for editing, the user or users may specifyemail campaign content and recipients, e.g. email subscriber lists andemail body 710, such that the content will comprise at least an emailheader and subject, body, any relevant attachments, recipients either ina “to:” field, a “CC:” field, or “BCC:” field, or some other label for arecipient field. Not only are email recipients and content specified,but further, a user or users may then specify a time or times forscheduled emails to be sent to customers 715, which may further bespecified in reaction to some API call or other action. For instance,email advertisements made in this way may be specified to run atparticular dates and times, or may be specified to run if an email issent to a connect email address, or even a third-party process such as aweb-crawler may search a website or websites for content, and if contentmatching a given set of parameters is found, the ad campaign is sent outas specified. Regardless of whether a campaign is executed immediatelyor for some future date, or specified for execution in response to acertain set of conditions, the interaction control server stores the adcampaign in an advertisement campaign database 720 or databases, asapplicable in a given implementation. Eventually or immediately, thespecified email ads are sent to specified customers at specified timesor in response to the specified conditions, with the specified content725.

FIG. 8 is a method diagram illustrating steps for specifying a socialmedia ad campaign using an interaction control server. First a user mayaccess an already-created advertisement campaign in an advertisementcampaign database, or create a brand new advertising campaign 805.Examples of types of database software that may operate include MYSQL™,ORACLE DATABASE™, MONGODB™, and others. It may exist as a distinctphysical device or be operating on another computing device that mayperform other specified functions aside from operating, hosting andserving the campaign database. If it is a distinct physical device, thedatabase may be connected over a LAN or WAN, the Internet, a directphysical connection to another device, or some other network connection.Once an ad campaign is read from the database and prepared for editing,or a new campaign is created and ready for editing, the user or usersmay specify ad content and demographics or target audience, e.g. emailsubscriber lists or user nationalities being possible choices, andspecifying the actual content of the advertisement 810, 815.Advertisements on social media may be specified to be posted not onlyfor specific demographics and customer audience groups, but also forspecific time and date ranges, or in response to certain conditionsbeing met. Regardless of whether a campaign is executed immediately orfor some future date, or specified for execution in response to acertain set of conditions, the advertisements may be dynamic orspecifically designed to be different for differing audiences based onregion, demographics, or other factors that may be possible to assess ofa customer, much like a TV advertisement may look different or have adifferent listed phone number in some regions using this system 820.Eventually or immediately, the specified advertisements are visible tocustomers on the specified social media platform or platforms atspecified times or in response to the specified conditions, with thespecified content, whether dynamically altered or static for all users825. A plurality of different social networks may be utilized for thisform of advertisement, including FACEBOOK™, YOUTUBE™, TWITCH TV™,MYSPACE™, TWITTER™, and others, and such advertisements may further takeplace in video streams rather than solely on social media feeds. Socialmedia advertisements often take the form of pre-recorded video and audiorecordings played before or during a broadcast, as commonly seen onYOUTUBE™ and TWITCH TV™ platforms, but not only limited to thoseplatforms.

FIG. 9 is a method diagram illustrating users interacting with TV adsusing an interaction control server. After a television advertisement isspecified and executed, a customer may see the advertisement on TV,which contains one or multiple of a phone number or QR code or othercontact information which may be specific to user region or demographics905, allowing a user to call the number, scan the QR code, or otherwiseuse their phone to contact the advertiser as seen on the TV screen 910.For instance, an advertisement may appear to customers in New York stateand Washington State, for some store that operates only in these twostates, but in these states has a moderate presence and wishes to grow.An advertisement that is mostly the same may air over several televisionchannels in both states, but with different phone numbers for users tocall if they are interested in the store and their products. After thisstep, a user initiates a phone call to specified phone number from adcampaign 915, either from the number on the screen, from the codescanned, or some other method of transmitting a phone number to a user.After a user initiates a phone call from the number on-screen orresulting from a scanned QR code or some other method (such as a URL onthe TV showing them the phone number), the phone call is directed to theinteraction control server 920 which uses an SMS server to respond tothe user's phone call 925 with a link, or button, allowing them tocomplete a transaction, view a website or web page, or perform someother CTA 930. Alternatively, a call may be sent to a forwardingservice, which handles the phone forwarding and SMS response containingthe CTA, rather than the call being directed to the adaptive interactioncontrol server. Further, it is possible to have the adaptive interactioncontrol server operate as part of such a forwarding service in yetanother implementation. The customer may then call or tap on the link,button, or other CTA, which is tracked for analytics 935 due to the factthat it is a CTA served directly by the ad campaign and which knows thephone number and accompanying data of the user, and allows the customerto complete the transaction as designed 940. This interaction may bemonitored for the purposes of analytics, allowing the user's initialinteraction with the advertisement, their call to the interactioncontrol server or forwarding service, and their completion of a purchaseor service-use or other CTA fulfillment, may all be monitored foranalytics purposes, allowing for a more complete analytics report on theuse of these advertisements. The phone number displayed to a user may bedependent on the region of the broadcast, and as such further offersanalytics tracking for users based on region and specific broadcasts. Itis possible for television to be viewed on a mobile device or othercomputing device, and as such a television in this embodiment may beunderstood as any device capable of viewing television broadcasts ortelevision broadcasts viewed over the internet or any other network on acomputing device.

An example of a dynamic and tracked TV advertisement which interactswith a user in this way is provided. A television advertisement campaignmay be specified for a product that is only legal in certain states ofthe United States of America, and which requires separate shippingoptions for customers in different states in the United States ofAmerica. Using the enclosed method, an otherwise typical TVadvertisement may display different phone numbers to users in thedifferent states, if desired. When a user calls the displayed number,their call is automatically captured by the advertisement interactioncontrol server and an SMS text message is sent to the customer's phone,containing a link to an AMAZON™ or other web-portal for purchasefulfillment. The phone call the user initially placed, the SMS response,and their tap on the link or button from the SMS message, as well aswhether or not they finish the transaction, are all able to be tracked,unlike with traditional TV advertising where it is not guaranteed howmany individuals see the advertisement and are swayed to use a productor visit a store or restaurant or similar. The user, after beingdirected to a web-portal for purchase such as AMAZON™, may then finishthe transaction, the entire string of events from the customer'sperspective being to watch an advertisement, call a phone number, thenclick on a link from a text message and purchase the item from theonline shopping portal, requiring no navigation of a phone system,website, travel to a brick and mortar store, and the entire interactionbeing trackable for analytics purposes.

FIG. 10 is a method diagram illustrating users interacting with emailads using an interaction control server. After an email advertisementcampaign is specified and executed, a customer or customers may see theadvertisements through their email providers, which contain one ormultiple of a phone number, QR code, tappable link or button or image,or other contact information or interactive design which may be specificto the customer's region or demographics 1005, allowing a user to callthe number, scan the QR code, tap the link or image or button, orotherwise use their phone to contact the advertiser as seen in the emailscreen 1010. For instance, an advertisement may appear to customers whosigned up for an email subscriber list and listed their locations in NewYork state and Washington State, for some store that operates only inthese two states, but in these states has a moderate presence and wishesto grow.

An advertisement that is mostly the same may be sent over email to usersin both states, but with tappable image links that go to different URL'sfor users in the different states if they are interested in the storeand their products. After this step, the interaction initiates a phonecall to a specified phone number from the ad campaign 1015, either fromthe number on the screen, from the code scanned, from the tapped imageor link or button, or some other method of transmitting a phone numberto a user. After a user initiates a phone call from the number on-screenor resulting from a scanned QR code or some other method, the phone callis directed to the interaction control server 1020 which uses an SMSserver to respond to the user's phone call 1025 with a link, or button,allowing them to complete a transaction, view a website or web page, orperform some other CTA 1030. Alternatively, a call may be forwarded to aforwarding service, which handles the phone forwarding and SMS responsecontaining the CTA, rather than the call being directed to the adaptiveinteraction control server. Further, it is possible to have the adaptiveinteraction control server operate as part of such a forwarding servicein yet another implementation. The customer may then call or tap on thelink, button, or other CTA, which is tracked for analytics 1035 due tothe fact that it is a CTA served directly by the ad campaign and whichknows the phone number and accompanying data of the user, and allows thecustomer to complete the transaction as designed 1040.

FIG. 11 is a method diagram illustrating users interacting with socialmedia ads using an interaction control server. After a social mediaadvertisement campaign is specified and executed, a customer orcustomers may see the advertisements with their social media accounts,the advertisements containing one or multiple of a phone number, QRcode, tappable link or button or image, or other contact information orinteractive design which may be specific to the customer's region ordemographics 1105, allowing a user to call the number, scan the QR code,tap the link or image or button, or otherwise use their phone to contactthe advertiser as seen on the social media platform 1110. For instance,an advertisement may appear to customers who “follow” a business' pageon a social media platform, allowing them to receive updates and adsfrom them, and listed their locations in New York State and WashingtonState, if the store operates only in these two states. An advertisementthat is mostly the same may be visible to users in both states, but withtappable image links that go to different URL's for users in thedifferent states if they are interested in the store and their products,if this is supported by the social media platform, otherwise theadvertisements will be uniform. After this step, the interactioninitiates a phone call to a specified phone number from the ad campaign1115, either from the number on the screen, from the code scanned, fromthe tapped image or link or button, or some other method of transmittinga phone number to a user. After a user initiates a phone call from thenumber on-screen or resulting from a scanned QR code or some othermethod, the phone call is directed to the interaction control server1120 which uses an SMS server to respond to the user's phone call 1125with a link, or button, allowing them to complete a transaction, view awebsite or web page, or perform some other CTA 1130. Alternatively, acall may be forwarded to a forwarding service, which handles the phoneforwarding and SMS response containing the CTA, rather than the callbeing directed to the adaptive interaction control server. Further, itis possible to have the adaptive interaction control server operate aspart of such a forwarding service in yet another implementation. Thecustomer may then call or tap on the link, button, or other CTA, whichis tracked for analytics 1135 due to the fact that it is a CTA serveddirectly by the ad campaign and which knows the phone number andaccompanying data of the user, and allows the customer to complete thetransaction as designed 1140.

FIG. 12 is a system diagram illustrating a NFC device broadcasting areferral link programmed into it, according to an aspect. A mobiledevice 1210 such as a smartphone, operates an operating system (OS) suchas ANDROID™ or IOS™, although other OSs are possible. A mobile devicemay be a tablet or other device aside from a smartphone as well. Mobiledevices of these sorts may run software applications, commonly referredto as an “app” (short for “application”), for a variety of purposes, anda mobile device 1210 may or may not contain communications other than orinstead of cellular communications, including wireless internetcapabilities, BLUETOOTH™ communications, and NFC capabilities. With amobile device 1210 possessing such NFC capabilities, a referral link NFCbeacon 1220 may communicate with such a mobile device 1210, the beacon1220 being operated as part of an NFC-enabled device 1230. Such a devicemay be any number of possible objects including a home appliance such asa toaster, refrigerator, blender, oven, television, laptop computer, orsomething else such as a coffee mug, piece of furniture such as a tableor bed, or any number of other objects that may have NFC technology onor inside of them. A referral link that may be broadcast by such abeacon 1220 would refer over the internet 1240 to a forwarding service1250, for the purpose of forwarding a customer a page to buy a similarproduct, the same product, view a manufacturer's website, or any numberof other possible CTA's that may be desired.

FIG. 13 is a method diagram illustrating methods for a NFC device tobroadcast a referral link programmed into it and a mobile device act onthe received link, according to an aspect. First a customer may load anappropriate application on their mobile device 1310, the application or“app” being one which specifically communicates over NFC beacons to findreferral links to initiate a call from a user's mobile device, at whichpoint the call is forwarded appropriately to send an SMS message to auser to complete a CTA. After initiating the application on a mobiledevice 1310, a customer may hold the mobile device near a beacon-enableddevice 1320, the NFC beacon-enabled device broadcasting a referral linkusing NFC 1330 which may be received by a mobile device application1340. Upon reception in the mobile device application, the mobile deviceapplication acts on the referral link as if it were a tapped link 1350as shown in other embodiments, whereby the tapped link results in aphone call being initiated by a mobile device, the phone call beingcaptured and forwarded and responded to with an SMS message containingthe CTA for a user to complete. A CTA may be a link to an online retailportal, a referral to a producer's website or directions to a store, orsomething else of use to the hosting business.

FIG. 14 is a system diagram illustrating a computer device such as alaptop, desktop, or mobile phone, utilizing a referral link, for thepurposes of a mobile device detection system to differentiate betweenmobile phones and non-mobile devices, such as personal computers. Acomputing device 1410 such as a smartphone, personal computer, tablet,or other computing device, operates an operating system (OS) such asANDROID™, IOS™, WINDOWS™, MAC OS™, or some other operating system.Computing devices of these sorts may run software applications, commonlyreferred to as an “app” (short for “application”), for a variety ofpurposes, and a computing device 1410 may or may not containcommunications capabilities including cellular communications, wired andwireless internet capabilities, BLUETOOTH™ communications, and NFCcapabilities. With a computing device 1410, a customer may access aclickable link 1420 through a web browser 1430. Such a browser may beany number of possible applications including INTERNET EXPLORER™,MICROSOFT EDGE™, GOOGLE CHROME™, SAFARI™, or other web browsers,including mobile web browsers for mobile devices or devices operatingmobile operating systems such as ANDROID™. A referral link 1420 that maybe tapped or clicked with such a browser 1430 would refer over theinternet 1440 to a forwarding service 1450, for the purpose offorwarding a customer a page to buy a similar product, the same product,view a manufacturer's website, or any number of other possible CTA'sthat may be desired. The purpose of such a system is for a forwardingservice 1450 to determine, based on the type of browser request sentwhen the link 1420 is clicked, whether a customer device is a mobiledevice such as a smartphone or tablet, or if it is a non-mobile devicesuch as a laptop or desktop computer.

FIG. 15 is a flowchart illustrating steps for a computer device such asa laptop, desktop, or mobile phone, utilizing a referral link, beingcategorized so that an appropriate referral link is sent to therequesting device. The flowchart enters 1510 when a user clicks on areferral link, from any device, on a web browser, causing a forwardingservice to examine query string parameters 1520. A determination may bemade 1530, as to what manner of device—a mobile device or somethingelse, such as a personal computer—has sent the request. If adetermination has already been made, the appropriate URL is returned1540, and the flowchart ends 1550. If a determination has not been madehowever, the HTTP headers are examined 1560 to determine the user-agentor similar field of an HTTP request from a customer's device. Auser-agent field is frequently present in an HTTP request headerindicating the product and version, and platform, used to make therequest, and based on the result, the appropriate URL is returned 1570,before the flowchart ends 1550.

FIG. 20 is a message flow diagram illustrating the flow of messages andoperations from a interaction control server specifying and serving atelevision advertisement, to a user completing all interactions withthat advertisement and all intermediate steps, according to anembodiment. A interaction control server 2005, which may be an adaptiveinteraction control server or a specialized interaction control serverfor television advertisements depending on the implementation,communicates over a network which may be the Internet, a PSTN,television networks, or some other network capable of transmitting to atelevision set 2015, to serve an advertisement 2030. The advertisementmay be instead served to a television network manager or provider, whichthen may serve the advertisement to individual television sets 2030. Auser who sees the television 2015 advertisement may use a mobile phone2020 to call a number shown on the screen, for instance a phone numbershown for ordering a specific computer part that a user may want. A usermay call this number 2035 and be sent to a destination phone number2025, whereupon the call is recorded in campaign analytics that are sentto the interaction control server 2040, 2005 over either the Internet orsome other appropriate network for delivering data across devices. Analternative embodiment of this process may be to have the interactioncontrol server be the destination phone number itself, effectivelybehaving as a forwarding service by recording the received call on itsown datastore and then cancelling or otherwise handling the incomingcall, and responding with an SMS instead, forwarding the user. After auser calls a destination phone number 2035 and the analytics arerecorded 2040, a response is provided to a user in the form of an SMSmessage 2045, which may communicate with the user's phone or with anapplication provided on their phone to provide a CTA. Such a CTA may bea tappable or clickable link, button, referral, or other similar CTAfulfillment method for phones, should other or newer methods arise. TheCTA is such an implementation that the user, upon completion of the CTA,is directed to a link destination 2010 over a network such as theInternet 2050, for example to complete purchase of a product or take asurvey. A combination of the user's access of the destination link 2010and their actions upon reaching the link (such as completion of apurchase, or not) may be recorded in analytics 2055. For example, usingthis method, a user may see an advertisement on a TV screen, call thephone number, have the call be canceled and responded to with an SMSthat contains a tappable or clickable or otherwise actionable link to aproduct landing page, and may then purchase the product on their mobiledevice right away depending on the user interface of the destinationlink, while having their initial call and their action with the CTAcontained in the SMS, as well as possibly their action on thedestination such as a landing page itself, all recorded in analytics. Inthis way, a more complete customer analytics profile may be formed.

FIG. 21 is a message flow diagram illustrating the flow of messages andoperations from a interaction control server specifying and serving anemail-based advertisement, to a user completing all interactions withthat advertisement and all intermediate steps, according to anembodiment. A interaction control server 2105, which may be an adaptiveinteraction control server or a specialized interaction control serverfor the purposes of sending emails and email advertisements depending onthe implementation, communicates over a network which may be theInternet, a PSTN, or some other network capable of sending emails tocustomer emails hosted by any common email service providers such asGOOGLE™ or YAHOO™ 2115, to serve an advertisement 2130. Thisadvertisement may be in the form of a subscription newsletter, may besolicited or unsolicited as allowed by law, or any other sort ofemail-based advertisement. The advertisement may be instead served to aservice or network which manages and executes such emails which may bemass-sent rather than individually sent, and which then may serve theadvertisement to a customer's email address 2130. A user who sees theemail advertisement may use a mobile phone 2120 to call a number shownon the screen or tap an image or button that uses the phone to call aphone number, for instance a phone number shown for ordering a specificcomputer part that a user may want, or a specific service in their area.A user may call this number 2135 and be sent to a destination phonenumber 2125, whereupon the call is recorded in campaign analytics thatare sent to the interaction control server 2140, 2105 over either theInternet or some other appropriate network for delivering data acrossdevices. An alternative embodiment of this process may be to have theinteraction control server be the destination phone number itself,effectively behaving as a forwarding service by recording the receivedcall on its own datastore and then cancelling or otherwise handling theincoming call, and responding with an SMS instead, forwarding the user.After a user calls a destination phone number 2135 and the analytics arerecorded 2140, a response is provided to a user in the form of an SMSmessage 2145, which may communicate with the user's phone or with anapplication provided on their phone to provide a CTA. Such a CTA may bea tappable or clickable link, button, referral, or other similar CTAfulfillment method for phones, should other or newer methods arise. TheCTA is such an implementation that the user, upon completion of the CTA,is directed to a link destination 2110 over a network such as theInternet 2150, for example to complete purchase of a product or take asurvey. A combination of the user's access of the destination link 2110and their actions upon reaching the link (such as completion of apurchase, or not) may be recorded in analytics 2155. For example, usingthis method, a user may register with a newsletter or subscribe to anorganization's promotional advertisements via email, and see anadvertisement on a received email for a car part on sale, call the phonenumber, have the call be canceled and responded to with an automated SMSthat contains a tappable or clickable or otherwise actionable link to aproduct landing page, and may then purchase the product on their mobiledevice right away depending on the user interface of the destinationlink, while having their initial call and their action with the CTAcontained in the SMS, as well as possibly their action on thedestination such as a landing page itself, all recorded in analytics. Inthis way, a more complete customer analytics profile may be formed.

FIG. 22 is a message flow diagram illustrating the flow of messages andoperations from a interaction control server specifying and serving asocial media advertisement, to a user completing all interactions withthat advertisement and all intermediate steps, according to anembodiment. A interaction control server 2205, which may be an adaptiveinteraction control server or a specialized interaction control serverfor the purposes of specifying and purchasing social media advertisementspace and time depending on the implementation, communicates over anetwork which may be the Internet, a PSTN, or some other network capableof communicating with social networks such as FACEBOOK™ or MYSPACE™ butwhich may be another social network that allows any advertisements to beprocured on the platform 2215, to serve an advertisement 2230. Thisadvertisement may be in the form of a video embedded in a user's socialnetwork feed, may be solicited or unsolicited as allowed by law, may beutilized with user data such as purchase history or any other availabledata if applicable, or any other sort of social media advertisement asmay be or become common in the art. A user who sees the advertisementmay use a mobile phone 2220 to tap or click the advertisement which mayuse the phone's functionality to call a phone number, or manually call anumber shown on the screen, for instance a phone number shown forordering a specific piece of furniture that a user may want, or aspecific service provided in their area. A user may call this number2235 and be sent to a destination phone number 2225, whereupon the callis recorded in campaign analytics that are sent to the interactioncontrol server 2240, 2205 over either the Internet or some otherappropriate network for delivering data across devices. An alternativeembodiment of this process may be to have the interaction control serverbe the destination phone number itself, effectively behaving as aforwarding service by recording the received call on its own datastoreand then cancelling or otherwise handling the incoming call, andresponding with an SMS instead, forwarding the user. After a user callsa destination phone number 2235 and the analytics are recorded 2240, aresponse is provided to a user in the form of an SMS message 2245, whichmay communicate with the user's phone or with an application provided ontheir phone to provide a CTA. Such a CTA may be a tappable or clickablelink, button, referral, or other similar CTA fulfillment method forphones, should other or newer methods arise. The CTA is such animplementation that the user, upon completion of the CTA, is directed toa link destination 2210 over a network such as the Internet 2250, forexample to complete purchase of a product or take a survey. Acombination of the user's access of the destination link 2210 and theiractions upon reaching the link (such as completion of a purchase, ornot) may be recorded in analytics 2255. For example, using this method,a user may perform online shopping such as with (but not limited to)AMAZON™, whereby information regarding their shopping habits isrecorded, and a social media advertisement is specified to target userswith similar shopping history, such as those who have purchased coffeetables recently. A user may see the advertisement on their preferredsocial network, call the phone number, have the call be canceled andresponded to with an automated SMS that contains a tappable or clickableor otherwise actionable link to a product landing page, and may thenpurchase the product on their mobile device right away depending on theuser interface of the destination link, while having their initial calland their action with the CTA contained in the SMS, as well as possiblytheir action on the destination such as a landing page itself, allrecorded in analytics. In this way, a more complete customer analyticsprofile may be formed.

FIG. 23 is a message flow diagram illustrating the flow of messages andoperations from a interaction control server specifying and embedding areferral link in an NFC beacon, to a user completing all interactionswith that link and all intermediate steps, according to an embodiment. Ainteraction control server 2305, which may be an adaptive interactioncontrol server or a specialized interaction control server for thepurposes of specifying a link destination 2310 to direct users to, andembedding this link in a NFC beacon 2315 such as a sticker or smalldevice on or inside of, or operating as part of, a product 2330, whichmay be utilized by a customer to receive the programmed link destination2310 for a variety of possible purposes. A user who is delivered thelink or advertisement by an NFC beacon 2315 may use a mobile phone 2320to tap or click the advertisement which may use the phone'sfunctionality to call a phone number, or manually call a number shown onthe screen, for instance a phone number shown for ordering a specificpiece of furniture that a user may want, or a specific service providedin their area. An NFC beacon 2315 may deliver the notification 2335,link, or similar, via a specialized application residing on andoperating on the user's phone 2320, according to some embodiments. Auser may call a shown number or utilize a shown button or call link 2340and be sent to a destination phone number 2325, whereupon the call isrecorded in campaign analytics that are sent to the interaction controlserver 2345, 2305 over either the Internet or some other appropriatenetwork for delivering data across devices. An alternative embodiment ofthis process may be to have the interaction control server be thedestination phone number itself, effectively behaving as a forwardingservice by recording the received call on its own datastore and thencancelling or otherwise handling the incoming call, and responding withan SMS instead, forwarding the user. After a user calls a destinationphone number 2340 and the analytics are recorded 2345, a response isprovided to a user in the form of an SMS message 2350, which maycommunicate with the user's phone or with an application provided ontheir phone to provide a CTA. Such a CTA may be a tappable or clickablelink, button, referral, or other similar CTA fulfillment method forphones, should other or newer methods arise. The CTA is such animplementation that the user, upon completion of the CTA, is directed toa link destination 2310 over a network such as the Internet 2355, forexample to complete purchase of a product or take a survey. Acombination of the user's access of the destination link 2310 and theiractions upon reaching the link (such as completion of a purchase, ornot) may be recorded in analytics 2360. For example, using this method,a user may have a product in their home built with this method, that hasan NFC beacon on or inside of it, and the user wishes to know more aboutthe product, or purchase another or a similar product, or view themanufacturer's website, or anything similar. The user may simply startan application for this purpose if necessary, and regardless of whethera specialized application is utilized, move the phone close to the NFCbeacon location, receiving data from the NFC beacon which could be theform of a link or a phone number to call. A user may see a phone numberon the shown website, or perhaps be delivered a phone number to calldirectly from the NFC beacon, call the phone number, have the call becanceled and be responded to with an automated SMS that contains atappable or clickable or otherwise actionable link to a product landingpage, and may then purchase the product on their mobile device rightaway depending on the user interface of the destination link, whilehaving their initial call and their action with the CTA contained in theSMS, as well as possibly their action on the destination such as alanding page itself, all recorded in analytics. In this way, a morecomplete customer analytics profile may be formed.

FIG. 24 is a method diagram illustrating the function of an applicationcapable of providing enhanced identity verification, according to anembodiment. A user may utilize on a mobile device, such as a mobilephone, an application or “app” that enables enhanced identityverification for purposes including detailed shipping updates such asfor products purchased, allowing a user to sign up and log in to themobile app 2410, over the Internet or another network suitable for such.User login information may be stored off-site or on-site depending onthe application implementation, whereby information may be stored usinga datastore including SQL, NoSQL such as MONGODB™, or other forms ofdata storage. Logging into an application is an understood procedure bywhich a user provides a recognized username and password, whether theusername is user-defined or some identifier such as their email address,to confirm user identity. The application then verifies the identity2420 of a user, through a process utilizing an uploaded copy of photo ID2421 which may be their driver's license or state-issued photoidentification, a photo copy of their passport 2422 including theirphoto in their passport, and an of a new facial photo (sometimesreferred to as a “selfie”) 2423. Using machine learning and imageparsing, the authentication can make use of the information on thedriver's license or state ID, as well as look for signs of the photobeing doctored, in addition to checking for signs of the passport imagebeing doctored, determine if the passport template matches the officialtemplate of the country of origin, check version numbers against thestandards available, ensure letters and numbers all align and do notappear doctored, check font size and type, validate the attributes onthe document along with the state ID or driver's license, and comparethe images along with the “selfie” or new self-photograph of the face,to attempt to ensure the identity of the user. When the user has newmail arriving, they may get a text notification of new mail 2430 throughthe application, and if their identity is securely identified throughthe app 2440 they may view further information about their packagethrough the USPS™ INFORMED DELIVERY™ system 2450, or a similar system bywhich citizens may receive advance notice and data about mail coming tothem before it actually arrives, for denizens of other countries.

FIG. 25 is a diagram illustrating the function of an NFC beacon smartorder link, according to an embodiment. An interaction control server2510 is present as either a computer system or service operating on acomputer system, and which may be a multiplatform interaction controlserver or which may be a more specialized service or computing system,capable of allowing a user to specify and create a smart-order linkcampaign 2520. A smart-order link campaign is an advertisement campaignwherein a smart-order link is generated for a product ordering page orlanding page 2530, for instance a link to an online retailer's page fora product or a class of products or similar, and which may be a dynamiclink which is capable of changing based on specified parameters from thecampaign administrator. For example, URL's that refer to differentpages, or which pass different data to the page such as through URLparameters, depending on parameters such as customer region, region ofthe product, or other possible selections. Whether or not thesmart-order link is dynamic or not, the link is sent to an NFC-enabledproduct 2540, or embedded in a sticker or other attachable device forthe product, so that the product can broadcast the NFC data andsmart-order link to NFC receivers. This may be an adhesive sticker, anembedded chip or component in a product, or any other implementationthat may successfully allow an NFC signal to be broadcast from theproduct effectively. When this is completed, and the product is shipped,a consumer may hold their phone or other mobile device with a receiverapp operating, near the product 2550, so that the smart-order link issent to the consumer mobile device 2560. Upon receiving the smart-orderlink, a customer may then be directed to product landing page 2570,where they may purchase or learn more about a product, or alternativelythey may be directed to another URL for information or servicesdepending on the implementation of the system. The smart-order linkdestination may be monitored for user access to provide basic analytics2580 capabilities to the system operator as well, including data aboutthe specific product that broadcast the link over NFC, the customerdevice or identity if available, and any available location data ifavailable, though other possibilities for analytics with this systemexist and may be extended in some implementations.

Referring to FIG. 26 , an example of an environment for use with anembodiment of an interaction control server 2600 is shown. Theinteraction control server 2600 includes an data control module 2602 anda campaign database 2604. The interaction control server 2600 isconfigured to be communicatively coupled to at least one businesscomputing device 2606, at least one customer computing device 2608, atleast one business establishment computing device 2610, and an SMSserver 2612 via a network 2614. In an embodiment, the interactioncontrol server 2600 includes at least one call center computing device2616.

In an embodiment, the interaction control server 2602, includes softwareoperating on a computing device. Examples of computing devices include,but are not limited to, a personal computer and a workstation computer.The data control module 2602 is configured to execute the software,receive user inputs, and utilize a network adapter. The operating systemof the computing device may be one of many options available toconsumers and businesses.

The campaign database 2604 may take the form of a managed or unmanageddatabase, document-oriented database system, or a SQL database. Examplesof types of database software that may operate include MYSQL™, ORACLEDATABASE™, MONGODB™, and others. The campaign database 2604 may exist asa distinct physical device or be operating on another computing devicethat may perform other functions aside from operating, hosting andserving the campaign database 2604. If the campaign database 2604 is adistinct physical device, the database may be connected over a LAN orWAN, the Internet, a direct physical connection to another device, orsome other network connection. The campaign database 2604 may be acentralized database system. The campaign database 2604 may be adistributed database system.

Examples of customer computing devices 2608 include, but are not limitedto, a mobile computing device, a personal computer, a cellular phone, atablet, a smartphone, a non-smartphone cellular phone, a laptop, and apersonal digital assistant. The customer computing devices 2608 areconfigured to be communicatively coupled to the data control module 2602via the network 2614. In an embodiment, the customer computing devices2608 are configured to transmit/receive text messages. In an embodiment,the customer computing devices 2608 are configured to transmit/receivephone calls. In an embodiment, the customer computing devices 2608 areconfigured to both transmit/receive text messages and transmit/receivephone calls.

Examples of business computing devices 2606 include, but are not limitedto, a mobile computing device, a workstation, and a personal computer.The business computing devices 2606 are configured to be communicativelycoupled to the interaction control server 2600. Examples of businessestablishment computing devices 2610 include, but are not limited to, amobile computing device, a workstation, and a personal computer. Thebusiness establishment computing devices 2610 are configured to becommunicatively coupled to the interaction control server 2600. Examplesof call center computing devices 2616 include, but are not limited to, amobile computing device, a workstation, and a personal computer. Thecall center computing devices 2616 are configured to be communicativelycoupled to the interaction control server 2602. The call centercomputing devices 2616 are configured to receive phone calls and textmessages.

In an embodiment, SMS texts are stored at the SMS server 2612. The datacontrol module 2602 retrieves SMS texts from the SMS server 2612 togenerate responses for transmission to customer computing devices 2608in a manner that is described in further detail below. In an embodiment,the SMS server 2612 is a third-party server. In an embodiment the SMSserver 2612 is a component of the interaction control server 2600.

The network 2614 may include one or more of the following types ofnetworks. The interaction control server 2600 may be configured to becommunicatively coupled to at least one TV network for the purpose ofbeing able to serve televised advertisements to customer computingdevices 2608, a PSTN for the purpose of receiving phone calls andsending and receiving SMS messages from customer computing devices 2608and from third-party SMS servers 2612, and the Internet so as to serveadvertisements on social media platforms on a social media server andserve advertisements via email, websites or individual web pages, orthrough applications, to the customer computing devices 2608.

The manner of the advertisements and data sent from the interactioncontrol server 2604 to the network 2614 may include audio data, visualdata such as video or images, textual data, recipient data, regionalspecifications, and other common data for advertisements inapplications, online, over TV, and over email. Advertisements may besent to, and reached by, the customer computing devices 2608 through theInternet via email, social networks, or internet browsing. Thefunctionality of a TV may be utilized by the customer computing devices2608 and all functionalities—TV viewership, phone call placement,internet browsing, email viewing, and social network access—may beaccomplished by the customer computing devices 2608 over the Internet,or with the Internet and PSTN.

Referring to FIG. 27 , a flow chart representation of a method 2700 ofusing an embodiment of an interaction control server 2600 to create anad campaign is shown. At 2702 business personnel at a business use thebusiness computing device 2606 to establish a communication channel withthe interaction control server 2602. In an embodiment, the business isin the automotive industry. In alternative embodiments, the business maybe associated with different industries.

At 2704, the business personnel issues a request to the data controlmodule 2602 to create an ad campaign via the business computing device2606. In an embodiment, the ad campaign is an automotive ad campaign. Inalternative embodiments, the ad campaign may be associated withdifferent industries.

The business personnel provide campaign ad data associated with the adcampaign to the data control module 2602 via the business computingdevice 2606 at 2706. The business may have one or more businessestablishments. The business establishments maintain inventories of theproducts offered for sale by the business. For example, the automotiveindustry business may have multiple automobile dealerships.

In an embodiment, the ad campaign data includes one or more of adcampaign details, business establishment specific product inventories,and business establishment specific data. Examples of ad campaigndetails include, but are not limited to, an ad campaign start date, anad campaign end date, and ad campaign configuration details. An exampleof business establishment specific product inventory includes, but isnot limited to, identification data associated with specific productsavailable in the product inventory at the business establishment.

In an embodiment, the business establishment is an automobile dealershipand the business establishment specific product inventory includesautomobile dealership specific product inventory. The automobiledealership specific automobile inventory includes vehicle details pages(VDP) identification data associated with automobiles available for saleat the automobile dealership, vehicle identification data associatedwith specific automobiles available for sale at the automobiledealership, and VDPs directed to specific types of automobiles availablefor sale at the automobile dealership. The VDP is an electronic ad forautomobiles that includes one or more of the brand of the automobile,advertising slogan(s) associated with the brand of the automobile, salesoffers, financing offers, an image of the automobile, and acommunication initiator. The function of the communication initiatorwill be described in greater detail below.

Examples of the business establishment specific data include, but arenot limited to, a toll-free number and an email address for the businessestablishment. In an embodiment, the business establishment is anautomobile dealership and the business establishment specific data isautomobile dealership specific data. The automobile dealership specificdata includes one or more of a toll-free number for the automobiledealership, the email address for the automobile dealership, and the BDCnumber for the automobile dealership.

At 2708, the data control module 2602 stores the ad campaign includingthe associated ad campaign data at the ad campaign database 2604. In anembodiment, the data control module 2602 stores the automotive adcampaign including the associated the automobile ad campaign data at thecampaign database 2604.

The data control module 2602 manages the ad campaign in accordance withthe ad campaign data provided by the business. In an embodiment, the adcampaign data specifies the different media platforms that will be usedto broadcast the ad campaign. The data control module 2602 is configuredto broadcast the ad campaign via a number of different media platforms.Examples of the different media platforms include, but are not limitedto, a social media platform, an email platform, televised advertisementplatform, and other types of Internet based platforms.

As mentioned above, the ad campaign data for an ad campaign includes aproduct description page for the advertised product. The data controlmodule 2602 is configured to transmit the product description page viaone or more of a number of different media platforms for display on oneor more customer computing devices 2608. In an embodiment, the adcampaign is an automotive ad campaign and the product description pageis a VDP. The product description page includes a communicationinitiator. A customer is provided with the option of expressing aninterest in the product advertised in the product description page byseeking to contact a business establishment that sells the advertisedproduct via the interaction control server 2600 by activating thecommunication initiator. Upon the activation of the communicationinitiator by the customer at the customer computing device 2608, theinteraction control server 2600 coordinates the engagement between thecustomer and a business establishment. In an embodiment, the interactioncontrol server 2600 tracks and coordinates the collection of analyticsbased on interactions between the customer and the businessestablishment.

In an embodiment, the communication initiator is a call initiator. Uponactivation of the call initiator by the customer via the customercomputing device 2608, the customer computing device 2608 places a callassociated with the product description page to the interaction controlserver 2600. In an embodiment, the communication initiator is a textmessage initiator. Upon activation of the text message initiator by thecustomer via the customer computing device 2608, the customer computingdevice 2608 sends a text message associate with the product descriptionpage to the interaction control server 2600.

Referring to FIG. 28 , an illustration of an example of a VDP 2800generated by the data control module 2602 for display on a customercomputing device 2608 including an example of a communication initiator2802 is shown. The example communication initiator 2802 includes ageneric tap button 2804. When the VDP 2800 is displayed on the customercomputing device 2608, the customer is provided with the option engagingwith a business establishment where the advertised product is availablefor sale. The customer initiates the process by activating thecommunication initiator 2802. In the illustrated example, the customerinitiates the process by “tapping” on the generic tap button 2804. In anembodiment, upon the activation of the communication initiator 2802, thecustomer computing device 2608 initiates the process by placing a callto the interaction control server 2600. In an embodiment, upon theactivation of the communication initiator 2802, the customer computingdevice 2608 initiates the process by sending a text message to theinteraction control server 2600.

Referring to FIG. 29 , an illustration of an example of a VDP 2900generated by the data control module 2602 for display on a customercomputing device 2608 including an example of a communication initiator2902 is shown. In an embodiment, the communication initiator 2902 is acall initiator. The example communication initiator 2902 includes a calltap button 2904. When the VDP 2900 is displayed on the customercomputing device 2608, the customer is provided with the option engagingwith a business establishment where the advertised product is availablefor sale. The customer initiates the process by activating thecommunication initiator 2902. In the illustrated example, the customerinitiates the process by “tapping” on the call tap button 2904. Upon theactivation of the communication initiator 2902, the customer computingdevice 2608 initiates the process by placing a call to the interactioncontrol server 2600.

Referring to FIG. 30 , an illustration of an example of a VDP 3000generated by the data control module 2602 for display on a customercomputing device 2608 including an example of a communication initiator3002 is shown. In an embodiment, the communication initiator 3002 is atext message initiator. The example communication initiator 3002includes a text message tap button 3004. When the VDP 3000 is displayedon the customer computing device 2608, the customer is provided with theoption engaging with a business establishment where the advertisedproduct is available for sale. The customer initiates the process byactivating the communication initiator 3002. In the illustrated example,the customer initiates the process by “tapping” on the text message tapbutton 3004. Upon the activation of the communication initiator 3002,the customer computing device 2608 initiates the process by sending atext message to the interaction control server 2600.

In an embodiment, the product description page includes a communicationinitiator that through cycles through a generic tap button 2802, a calltap button 2902, and a text message tap button 3003. In this embodiment,the display of the generic tap button 2802 identifies the existence of atap button. When the call tap button 2904 is displayed, “tapping” on thecall tap button 2904 causes the customer computing device 2608 to placea call to the interaction control server 2600. When the text message tapbutton is displayed, “tapping” on the text message tap button 2904causes the customer computing device 2608 to transmit a text message tothe interaction control server 2600. In an embodiment, the generic tapbutton 2804, the call tap button 2904, and the text message tap button3004 are sequentially displayed for a pre-defined period of time.

In an embodiment, the product description page included a communicationinitiator that through cycles through a call tap button 2902, and a textmessage tap button 3003. When the call tap button 2904 is displayed, the“tapping” on the call tap button 2904 causes the customer computingdevice 2608 to place a call to the interaction control server 2600. Whenthe text message tap button is displayed, the “tapping” on the textmessage tap button 2904 causes the customer computing device 2608 totransmit a text message to the interaction control server 2600. In anembodiment, the call tap button 2904, and the text message tap button3004 are each displayed for a pre-defined period of time.

In an embodiment, the call tap button 2904, and the text message tapbutton 3004 are simultaneously displayed in different areas of a productdescription page. While the generic tap button 2804, the call tap callbutton 2904, and the text message tap button 3002 have been illustratedas spherical buttons, one or more of the generic tap button 2804, thecall tap button 2904, and the text message tap button 3002 may have adifferent shape.

FIG. 31 is a flow chart representation of an example of a method 3100 ofresponding to an activation of a call initiator on a product descriptionpage at a customer computing device 2608 using an embodiment of aninteraction control server 2600. The interaction control server 2600transmits the product description page for display on one or morecustomer computing devices 2608 via one of the platforms designated bythe business. In an embodiment, the product description page includes acall initiator. If the customer wishes to obtain additional informationregarding a product advertised on the product description page displayedon the customer computing device 2608, the customer activates the callinitiator. In an embodiment, the call initiator is a call tap button2902 and the customer taps the call tap button to activate the callinitiator. In an embodiment, the product description page is a VDP foran automobile.

The customer computing device 2608 responds to the activation of thecall initiator by placing a call from the customer computing device 2608to the interaction control server 2600. In an embodiment, the call isreceived at a call center computing device 2616 at a call center. In anembodiment, the call center computing device 2616 is a component of theinteraction control server 2600. In an embodiment, the call centercomputing device 2616 is external to the interaction control server2600.

At 3102, the call placed by the customer computing device 2608 isreceived at the call center computing device 2616. The received callincludes embedded customer computing device specific data and productdescription page specific data. An example of the customer computingdevice specific data is a customer computing device phone number.Examples of the product description specific data include, but are notlimited to, a product description page identifier identifying theproduct description page displayed on the customer computing device 2608and a product description page link associated with the displayedproduct description page.

In an embodiment, the product description page specific data is VDPspecific data associated with a VDP displayed on the customer computingdevice 2608. Examples of the VDP specific data include, but are notlimited to, a VDP identifier identifying the VDP displayed on thecustomer computing device 2608 and a VDP link associated with thedisplayed VDP.

At 3104, call center personnel forward the received customer computingdevice specific data and product description page specific data to thedata control module 2602 via the call center computing device 2616. Inan embodiment, call center personnel forward the received customercomputing device specific data and the VDP specific data to the datacontrol module 2602 via the call center computing device 2616.

At 3106, the data control module 2602 identifies the ad campaign basedon the received product description page specific data. In anembodiment, the data control module 2602 identifies the automotivecampaign ad based on the received VDP specific data.

At 3108, the data control module 2602 retrieves a SMS text from the SMSserver 2612. In an embodiment, a tap text link associated with theproduct advertised in the product description page is included the SMStext. In an embodiment, the data control module 2602 adds the tap textlink to the retrieved SMS text. At 3110, the data control module 2602transmits the SMS text including the tap text link to the customercomputing device 2608.

The SMS text message including the tap text link is received at thecustomer computing device 2608. Clicking on the tap text link enables acustomer to complete a CTA associated with the product advertised on theproduct description page. Examples of CTA include, but are not limitedto, engage in a transaction associated with the product advertised onthe product description page and view a website associated with theproduct advertised on the product description page. In an embodiment, byclicking on the tap text link, the customer consents to allow theinteraction control server 2600 to track and collect customer actiondata associated with the advertised product for analytics. In anembodiment, the customer is provided with an option to disable thetracking feature.

At 3112, responsive to the activation of the tap text link, the datacontrol module 2602 transmits the customer computing device specificdata, the product description page specific data, and ad campaign datato a business establishment computing device 2610 associated with abusiness establishment that is suited to enable the customer to purchasethe advertised product. In an embodiment, the data control module 2602identifies one or more of the city, state, and zip code associated withthe customer based on the customer computing device specific data andtransmits the identified one or more of the city, state, and zip codeassociated with the customer to the business establishment computingdevice 2610. The business establishment may use the received customercomputing device specific data to contact the customer to discuss apotential sale of the advertised product with the customer. In anembodiment, the advertised product is an automobile and the businessestablishment is a automobile dealership.

At 3114, responsive to the activation of the tap text link, the datacontrol module 2602 transmits the customer computing device specificdata, product description page specific data, the ad campaign data, andall tracked customer actions to the analytics server thereby enablingthe collection and analysis of ad campaign specific data.

Referring to FIG. 32 , a flow chart representation of an example of amethod 3200 of responding to an activation of a call initiator onproduct description page displayed on a customer computing device 2608using an embodiment of an interaction control server 2600 is shown. Theinteraction control server 2600 transmits the product description pagefor display on one or more customer computing devices 2608 via one ofthe platforms designated by the business. In an embodiment, the productdescription page includes a call initiator. If the customer wishes toobtain additional information regarding a product advertised on theproduct description page displayed on the customer computing device2608, the customer activates the call initiator. In an embodiment, thecall initiator is a call tap button 2902 and the customer taps the calltap button to activate the call initiator. In an embodiment, the productdescription page is a VDP for an automobile.

The customer computing device 2608 responds to the activation of thecall initiator by placing a call from the customer computing device 2608to the interaction control server 2600. At 3202, the call placed by thecustomer computing device 2608 is received by interaction control server2602. The received call includes embedded customer computing devicespecific data and product description page specific data. An example ofthe customer computing device specific data is a customer computingdevice phone number. Examples of the product description specific datainclude, but are not limited to, a product description page identifieridentifying the product description page displayed on the customercomputing device 2608 and a product description page link associatedwith the displayed product description page.

In an embodiment, the product description page specific data is VDPspecific data associated with a VDP displayed on the customer computingdevice 2608. Examples of the VDP specific data include, but are notlimited to, a VDP identifier identifying the VDP displayed on thecustomer computing device 2608 and a VDP link associated with thedisplayed VDP.

At 3204, the data control module 2602 identifies the ad campaign basedon the received product description page specific data. In anembodiment, the data control module 2602 identifies the automotivecampaign ad based on the received VDP specific data.

At 3206, the data control module 2602 retrieves a SMS text from the SMSserver 2612. In an embodiment, a tap text link associated with theproduct advertised in the product description page is included the SMStext. In an embodiment, the data control module 2602 adds the tap textlink to the retrieved SMS text. At 3208, the data control module 2602transmits the SMS text including the tap text link to the customercomputing device 2608.

The SMS text message including the tap text link is received at thecustomer computing device 2608. Clicking on the tap text link enables acustomer to complete a CTA associated with the product advertised on theproduct description page. Examples of CTA include, but are not limitedto, engage in a transaction associated with the product advertised onthe product description page and view a website associated with theproduct advertised on the product description page. In an embodiment, byclicking on the tap text link, the customer consents to allow theinteraction control server 2600 to track and collect customer actiondata associated with the advertised product for analytics. In anembodiment, the customer is provided with an option to disable thetracking feature.

At 3210, responsive to the activation of the tap text link, the datacontrol module 2602 transmits the customer computing device specificdata, the product description page specific data, and ad campaign datato a business establishment computing device 2610 associated with abusiness establishment that is suited to enable the customer to purchasethe advertised product. In an embodiment, the data control module 2602identifies one or more of the city, state, and zip code associated withthe customer based on the customer computing device specific data andtransmits the identified one or more of the city, state, and zip codeassociated with the customer to the business establishment computingdevice 2610. The business establishment may use the received customercomputing device specific data to contact the customer to discuss apotential sale of the advertised product with the customer. In anembodiment, the advertised product is an automobile and the businessestablishment is a automobile dealership.

At 3212, responsive to the activation of the tap text link, the datacontrol module 2602 transmits the customer computing device specificdata, product description page specific data, the ad campaign data, andall tracked customer actions to the analytics server thereby enablingthe collection and analysis of ad campaign specific data.

Referring to FIG. 33 is a flow chart representation of an example of amethod 3300 of responding to an activation of a text message initiator3002 on a product description page displayed on a customer computingdevice 2608 using an embodiment of an interaction control server 2600 isshown. The interaction control server 2600 transmits the productdescription page for display on one or more customer computing devices2608 via one of the platforms designated by the business. In anembodiment, the product description page includes a text messageinitiator 3002. If the customer wishes to obtain additional informationregarding a product advertised on the product description page displayedon the customer computing device 2608, the customer activates the textmessage initiator 3002. In an embodiment, the text message initiator3002 is a text message tap button 3004 and the customer taps the textmessage tap button 3004 to activate the text message initiator 3002. Inan embodiment, the product description page is a VDP for an automobile.

The customer computing device 2608 responds to the activation of thetext message initiator by transmitting a text message from the customercomputing device 2608 to the interaction control server 2600. At 3302,the text message transmitted by the customer computing device 2608 isreceived by interaction control server 2602. The received text messageincludes embedded customer computing device specific data and productdescription page specific data. An example of the customer computingdevice specific data is a customer computing device phone number.Examples of the product description specific data include, but are notlimited to, a product description page identifier identifying theproduct description page displayed on the customer computing device 2608and a product description page link associated with the displayedproduct description page.

In an embodiment, the product description page specific data is VDPspecific data associated with a VDP displayed on the customer computingdevice 2608. Examples of the VDP specific data include, but are notlimited to, a VDP identifier identifying the VDP displayed on thecustomer computing device 2608 and a VDP link associated with thedisplayed VDP.

At 3304, the data control module 2602 identifies the ad campaign basedon the received product description page specific data. In anembodiment, the data control module 2602 identifies the automotivecampaign ad based on the received VDP specific data.

At 3306, the data control module 2602 retrieves a SMS text from the SMSserver 2612. In an embodiment, a tap text link associated with theproduct advertised in the product description page is included the SMStext. In an embodiment, the data control module 2602 adds the tap textlink to the retrieved SMS text. At 3308, the data control module 2602transmits the SMS text including the tap text link to the customercomputing device 2608.

The SMS text message including the tap text link is received at thecustomer computing device 2608. Clicking on the tap text link enables acustomer to complete a CTA associated with the product advertised on theproduct description page. Examples of CTA include, but are not limitedto, engage in a transaction associated with the product advertised onthe product description page and view a website associated with theproduct advertised on the product description page. In an embodiment, byclicking on the tap text link, the customer consents to allow theinteraction control server 2600 to track and collect customer actiondata associated with the advertised product for analytics. In anembodiment, the customer is provided with an option to disable thetracking feature.

At 3310, responsive to the activation of the tap text link, the datacontrol module 2602 transmits the customer computing device specificdata, the product description page specific data, and ad campaign datato a business establishment computing device 2610 associated with abusiness establishment that is suited to enable the customer to purchasethe advertised product.

In an embodiment, the data control module 2602 identifies one or more ofthe city, state, and zip code associated with the customer based on thecustomer computing device specific data and transmits the identified oneor more of the city, state, and zip code associated with the customer tothe business establishment computing device 2610. The businessestablishment may use the received customer computing device specificdata to contact the customer to discuss a potential sale of theadvertised product with the customer. In an embodiment, the advertisedproduct is an automobile and the business establishment is a automobiledealership.

At 3312, responsive to the activation of the tap text link, the datacontrol module 2602 transmits the customer computing device specificdata, product description page specific data, the ad campaign data, andall tracked customer actions to the analytics server thereby enablingthe collection and analysis of ad campaign specific data.

FIG. 34 is a flow chart illustrating the use of an automotive adcampaign being utilized for both generic and highly tailored,user-specific interactions, while generating deep analytics of adinteractivity, according to an embodiment.

A interaction control server 3401 as shown is an interaction controlserver as described in various embodiments, where the interactioncontrol server is capable of receiving user input and communicating withat least one network to distribute created ad campaigns to websites orother platforms, and interact with users across networks. In thisembodiment, an ad campaign type is specified, in this embodiment as anautomotive campaign 3402, which may specify to the system what manner ofads, analytics, and usage it will have, which may be of varyingimportance depending on system configuration. An ad campaign type doesnot necessarily have to be specified for the system to operate properly,and may only be utilized in some cases for labelling a campaign forother human users, such as administrators, to understand the analyticsand underlying ads being generated. The campaign details 3403 may bespecified as well from a interaction control server 3401, along withdealer inventory 3404, and dealer details 3405, for a specific dealer ofan automotive product such as a car or truck. These details may bemanually input into the system from a interaction control server 3401,or dynamically set, for instance from a call to a database. A customer'smobile website may then be viewed 3406, the operation of which in aspecified ad campaign may be different depending on whether it is a“concierge” website or a “signature” website 3407, referring to awebsite that provides for a messenger assistant 3414 b for “concierge”websites, or a “signature” website which merely provides for basicinformation filled from a datastore but does not provide a customizedexperience with a messenger assistant 3414 b. In either case, adetermination is made as to whether or not a user is on a VehicleDetails Page (“VDP”) 3408, 3409, and if a user is not on such a page toview a product's description, a text messenger app is opened on theuser's phone 3412, to display a generic message to the user 3413, whileif the user is indeed on a VDP, their messenger app opens 3410, 3411 andthey are given a more specific message 3414 a, 3415 regarding thevehicle details, based in part on a lookup of the vehicle's ID in thedealer inventory 3404. It is useful to note that the text messagingapplications may be opened due to receiving an internet-initiated SMStext message directed at the user, for instance through the openstandard Internet Engineering Task Force (“IETF”) RFC 5724, “URI Schemefor Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) Short Message Service(SMS).” As such, the interaction between a user and the advertisementcampaign as shown, may take them form of them merely seeing anadvertisement on the mobile website, tapping or clicking it, and the SMSbeing sent to them, initiating interactions. A user who was notinitially on the VDP and was given a generic message 3413 rather than adefault informational message 3414 a, 3415, may be given a more specificmessage 3415 or may be referred to a messenger assistant 3414 b forfurther customization and use with a chatbot or similar system. Ineither case, the default message 3415 or messenger assistant 3414 b thenmay store data 3416, 3417 including customer interactions, any messengerassistant interactions, customer purchases or referrals, location orphone number data, or other relevant data, in datastores, beforeallowing either a summary customer attribution 3419 in the case of anon-concierge or limited website use, or additional third-partyattributions 3418 as well as a more detailed customer attribution ifavailable 3420, to be used for compiling the completed analytics 3421 ofthe advertisement interactions. Third party attributions 3418 mayinclude attribution of interactions and results regarding the messengerassistant, or any related or referred products or links, during thecourse of advertisement interaction. Customer attributions may includeidentifying information about the customer and their selections, as muchas permitted by law and desired in the configuration of the system. Bycontrast, a summary customer attribution 3419 may be a similarattribution but with less or an equivalent amount of interaction andidentifying data, without third-party attribution data, due to a smalleramount of interaction.

FIG. 35 is a diagram of a system for adaptive advertisement within amobile application, according to an embodiment. A user mobile devicewith a communications and advertising application 3510 exists which maybe used by a consumer while connected to a network or multiple networks3520, such as but not limited to the Internet or a Cellular Network, andwhich may be a smartphone or other manner of mobile device such as atablet, or personal computing device. The operating system of such adevice may range from such software as ANDROID™, IOS™, WINDOWS™, LINUX™,or others, and a second mobile device 3511 may also operate on at leastone of the same networks 3520 as the first mobile device 3510, and maybe communicated with over that network or networks 3520 by the firstmobile device and application 3510. The application running on a firstmobile device 3510 may communicate over the network or networks 3520,such as with the TCP/IP protocol, with a notification service 3530 thatmanages both incoming and outgoing data to the application, for thepurpose of sending notifications such as PUSH notifications to the user,while also allowing a user to input and edit their own data for amatching service 3540, the data being stored in a datastore 3550. Theservices 3530, 3540 and datastore 3550 may be stored on the same serverdevice, or on some combination of separate or interconnected devices,the specific configuration of which is not limiting to the invention. Amatching service 3540 may be used to match a user's inserted preferencesand data with stored 3550 data from companies that wish to advertise tosuch users, for instance it may match a user who has very openpreferences for any companies offering advertised deals within a 20 mileradius, in which case the user may get notifications of such offerswithin his specified distance, from the matching service 3540. If amatch is made, the notification service 3530 is used to notify the userand allow them to perform an action based on the notification, withinthe application.

FIG. 36 is a method diagram for a system of adaptive advertisementwithin a mobile application, according to an embodiment. First a usermay register with a communications and advertisement application forservice, and input their personal data 3610. Personal data may includefields such as date of birth, name, location, gender or sex, sexualorientation, income, or any other data as needed by the communicationsand advertisement integration application. After a user registers andenters their selected data, a user may input further select data intothe application to be used for varying services such as keeping track ofpersonal reminders, keeping track of important dates such as birthdaysof loved ones, and matching select personal data with companies andoffers that coincide with specified preferences and data 3620, forinstance through a variety of menu options, text fields, and more. Auser may or may not then utilize the application to send manual orautomated media communications through text or voice to phone contacts,with the option of utilizing third party individuals affiliated with theapplication such as celebrities to license media for thesecommunications 3630. For instance, after a user has registered andentered relevant personal data into the application, they may specifythat automated “happy birthday” messages should be sent to theirrelatives as specified in the application, and may even include anoption for third parties such as celebrities or noteworthy figures tosend pre-recorded birthday messages, as part of the message sent to theuser's relatives. Such third party individuals may require payment, maybe part of a subscription package in the application, and may even beother relatives or a self-recorded audio file, rather than a third partyindividual. NFC communications mentioned earlier may integrate with theapplication 3640 for the purposes of allowing NFC-enabled products ortags to trigger an offer from an advertiser or seller to appear on acustomer's application. Voice-enabled communications with theapplication 3650 may also be enabled by a user so that they may replacetraditional user interface interactivity with voice commands, such asinstructing the application, “send happy birthday message to my AuntPatrice,” or some other voice command. Communications sent from a mobiledevice operating such an application may be received by a recipientdevice without such an application, and may be received as emails, textSMS messages, phone calls or messages, or other communications methods,techniques and services that may be or may become common in mobiledevice communications.

FIG. 37 is a message flow diagram for a system of adaptive advertisementwithin a mobile application, according to an embodiment. The devices orservices receiving or sending messages in the diagram are a phone withan integrated advertisement and communication application 3510, anotification service 3530, a matching service 3540, a datastore 3550,and a recipient device 3511. A user of a user mobile device running anintegrated advertisement and communication application 3510 may sendtheir preferences and personal data to a datastore 3550, 3710, allowinga notification service 3530 to poll this data and receive the customer'sdata as well as the data from companies that may wish to match with theconsumer 3720. The notification service 3530 then informs the user viathe application 3510 of any notifications, matches, or reminders thatare scheduled 3730, at which point a user may interact with thenotifications and respond to them 3740 which is sent to the matchingservice 3540, or the user may initiate communications with a secondrecipient mobile device 3511, 3750.

FIG. 38 is a flowchart showing an exemplary conversion of SMS, voice,and email data, for an exemplary automotive dealer interaction. First,an SMS engine from an advertisement integration application is initiated3805 that may include an SMS bot 3810, which may pose consumer questions3815. Query and response may include personal information questions,preferences, or settings for the application or for an instantcommunication. For example, if a merchant or advertiser wishes tocontact a consumer; or if the consumer has indicated they wish to becontacted by a merchant. A consumer may answer whether they wish to becontacted by phone or text 3820, and if they answer “phone,” a phonecall is initiated with an agent to gather and then convert their data tothe proper CRM format 3825 and to handle the consumer's interaction asnormal, such as converting the user data to MICROSOFT DYNAMICS 365™format, and storing it in an auto dealer's CRM system 3830, for anexemplary auto dealer interaction. If the user instead answer “text” atstep 3820, the application may initiate an SMS to email conversion 3835by taking the text typed by the consumer and putting it in theappropriate fields of an email, or by putting the text entirely in thebody of the email, depending on the implementation. The consumer datamay then be emailed to the auto dealer CRM system 3840 for input intothe system 3845, at which point an agent for the auto dealer may replyto the email sent by the consumer 3850 if applicable. The email sent bythe auto dealer agent is then converted into SMS 3855, for instance thebody of the email being put into the SMS, with the recipient beingautomatically matched with the email thread in the CRM. The consumer maybe asked if they wish to continue texts with the agent, by the SMS bot3860, at which point, if they specify “yes,” they will be forwarded backinto the SMS-to-email loop 3835. If they answer “no” however, indicatingthat the interactions are finished, then a transcript of the SMS andemails between the consumer and auto dealer agent is captured 3865 andall data is stored in an analytics data store for later use in analyticsreporting 3870.

FIG. 39 is a diagram of a system for adaptive advertisement within amobile application, according to an embodiment. A user mobile devicewith a communications and advertising application 3910 exists which maybe used by a consumer while connected to a network or multiple networks3920, such as but not limited to the Internet or a cellular network, andwhich may be a smartphone or other manner of mobile device such as atablet, or personal computing device. The operating system of such adevice may range from such software as ANDROID™, IOS™, WINDOWS™, LINUX™,or others, and a second mobile device 3915 may also operate on at leastone of the same networks 3920 as the first mobile device 3910, and maybe communicated with over that network or networks 3920 by the firstmobile device and application 3910.

The first mobile device 3910 comprises at least a microphone 3911, aspeech recognition engine 3912, a command interpreter 3913, and anapplication 3914. The command interpreter 3913 and speech recognition3912 are software operating on hardware connected to or part of theinterior of the mobile device 3910 and may be part of the software ofthe application 3914, rather than separate software. Independentsoftware for speech recognition 3912 may be used, such as DRAGONNATURALLY SPEAKING™, SPHINX™, and others. Some operating systems such asANDROID™ may have built-in speech recognition which may be utilized aswell. A microphone 3911 may be a separately connected device, also knownas an external microphone, or may be an integrated microphone that ispart of the construction of the mobile device 3910, and is used toreceive audio and deliver it to the speech recognition engine 3912,which interprets the audio data to form words, forwarding the translateddata to the command interpreter 3913 software, which interprets stringsof words as commands to the application 3914, such as “tap that link” or“send a birthday greeting to my Mother.”

The application running on a first mobile device 3910 may communicateover the network or networks 3920, such as with the TCP/IP protocol,with a notification service 3930 that manages both incoming and outgoingdata to the application, for the purpose of sending notifications suchas PUSH notifications to the user, while also allowing a user to inputand edit their own data for a matching service 3940, the data beingstored in a datastore 3950. The services 3930, 3940 and datastore 3950may be stored on the same server device, or on some combination ofseparate or interconnected devices, the specific configuration of whichis not limiting to the invention. A matching service 3940 may be used tomatch a user's inserted preferences and data with stored 3950 data fromcompanies that wish to advertise to such users, for instance it maymatch a user who has very open preferences for any companies offeringadvertised deals within a 20 mile radius, in which case the user may getnotifications of such offers within his specified distance, from thematching service 3940. If a match is made, the notification service 3930is used to notify the user and allow them to perform an action based onthe notification, within the application.

FIG. 40 is a method diagram for a system of adaptive advertisementwithin a mobile application, according to an embodiment. First a userspeaks into microphone 4010, which may be either an integratedmicrophone or an external or separately attached microphone, and whichmay be connected through one of several possible methods, including a3.5 mm jack using any of TS, TRS, TRRS, or TRRRS construction, or an XLRmicrophone either connected directly to the mobile device or connectedthrough the use of an adapter, or connected over a network connectionincluding wireless connections, or some other connection method. Theaudio data the user speaks is then translated into text with a speechrecognition engine, which may be software operating as part of themobile device or as part of a separately connected device, before givingthe string of translated words in the supported language of the user toa command interpreter to be interpreted as application commands 4020.According to the embodiment, the application in this instance may beused for integration of adaptive advertisement and other communications,utilizing a user's voice to receive commands rather than buttons or atouchscreen interface, or in addition to them in some cases. Suchcommands may include “send a birthday greeting to my Mother,” “I don'twant to get offers from automotive dealers,” “respond to that offer,”and others.

A user may register with a communications and advertisement applicationfor service, and input their personal data 4030. Personal data mayinclude fields such as date of birth, name, location, gender or sex,sexual orientation, income, or any other data as needed by thecommunications and advertisement integration application. After a userregisters and enters their selected data, a user may input furtherselect data into the application to be used for varying services such askeeping track of personal reminders, keeping track of important datessuch as birthdays of loved ones, and matching select personal data withcompanies and offers that coincide with specified preferences and data4040, for instance through a variety of menu options, text fields, andmore. A user may or may not then utilize the application to send manualor automated media communications through text or voice to phonecontacts, with the option of utilizing third party individualsaffiliated with the application such as celebrities to license media forthese communications 4050. For instance, after a user has registered andentered relevant personal data into the application, they may specifythat automated “happy birthday” messages should be sent to theirrelatives as specified in the application, and may even include anoption for third parties such as celebrities or noteworthy figures tosend pre-recorded birthday messages, as part of the message sent to theuser's relatives. Such third party individuals may require payment, maybe part of a subscription package in the application, and may even beother relatives or a self-recorded audio file, rather than a third partyindividual. NFC communications mentioned earlier may integrate with theapplication 4060 for the purposes of allowing NFC-enabled products ortags to trigger an offer from an advertiser or seller to appear on acustomer's application. Voice-enabled communications with theapplication 4070 may also be enabled by a user so that they may replacetraditional user interface interactivity with voice commands, such asinstructing the application, “send happy birthday message to my AuntPatrice,” or some other voice command. Communications sent from a mobiledevice operating such an application may be received by a recipientdevice without such an application, and may be received as emails, textSMS messages, phone calls or messages, or other communications methods,techniques and services that may be or may become common in mobiledevice communications.

FIG. 41 is a message flow diagram for a system of adaptive advertisementwithin a mobile application, according to an embodiment. The devices orservices receiving or sending messages in the diagram are a speechrecognition engine 3912, a command interpreter 3913, a mobileapplication 3914, a notification service 3930, a matching service 3940,a datastore 3950, and a recipient device 3915. A mobile device user mayspeak into a connected microphone to have their speech interpreted by aspeech recognition engine 3912, whereby the interpreted speech is sentfrom the speech recognition engine 3912 to the command interpreter 3913,4110. Such a data transmission may be merely a software pipeline betweentwo software operating on the same computer, or may be a networkconnection between software operating on network-connected devices. Sucha speech recognition engine 3912 may be an operating system service suchas one offered by ANDROID™ operating systems, or a proprietary or opensource system such as DRAGON NATURALLY SPEAKING™ or SPHINX™, while acommand interpreter 3913 may be an integrated software component of theapplication 3914, interpreting the string of text as a limited set ofcommands within the application 4120, such as “ignore that offer” or“close app.”

A user of a phone running an integrated advertisement and communicationapplication 3910 may send their preferences and personal data to adatastore 3950, 4130, allowing a notification service 3930 to poll thisdata and receive the customer's data as well as the data from companiesthat may wish to match with the consumer 4140. The notification service3930 then informs the user via the application 3910 of anynotifications, matches, or reminders that are scheduled 4150, at whichpoint a user may interact with the notifications and respond to them4160 which is sent to the matching service 3940, or the user mayinitiate communications with a second recipient mobile device 3915,4170.

FIG. 45 is a flow diagram showing the steps of an exemplary method forinteraction control. In a first step, 4501 receive an electronic requestfrom a first user device, electronic request comprising user name ornumber identifying user, origination address, product or service ofinterest, associated advertising campaign, time and date of availabilityif not immediately; to establish a text-based connection, text-based(e.g. SMS or other communication protocol available to those skilled inthe art); from a first user device whereas the first user device isassociated with a customer (e.g. customer user mobile device 130) to asecond user device whereas the second user device is associated with abusiness (e.g. business user mobile device 132). In a next step, 4502retrieve a first user profile data from a user profile database that maybe associated with a business' CRM system, user profile customer profiledata comprising user name, address, phone number, email, preferredcontact method, historical purchase information, customer tiering level(e.g. bronze, silver, gold), personal information (e.g. marital status,number of dependents, net worth, interests/hobbies). In a next step,4503 send an interaction routing request to a routing engine,interaction routing request comprising list of prior customerinteractions with business, brand, product, or if available competitorbusiness, brand or product, product or service purchased, amount ofpurchase, prior communications (e.g. text, chat, email, snail mail,voice call, call center interaction, in-person, telegram or othercommunications means) with business or business partner, attributiondata associated with advertising campaigns customer experiencedincluding media channel (e.g. TV, social media,near-field-communication, in-store offers, targeted email), dates andtimes of ad campaigns, aggerate sales data associated with eachadvertising campaign, customer-specific sales outcome (e.g. madepurchased, deferred purchase, returned item). In a next step, 4504receive target route information from a routing engine, target routeinformation comprising target type (e.g. traditional phone-based agent,multi-media agents, AI-based or traditional interactive voice response(“IVR”) systems, AI-driven chat bots or speech bots, or non-traditionalresources for example field sales), target resource name (e.g. JimJohnson), title (e.g. car sales advocate), destination address (e.g.360.867.5309). In a next step, 4505 send target route information tomedia translation server. In a next step, 4506 receive interactioncompletion data from a media translation server, interaction completiondata comprising first user identifier, second user identifier,interaction type (e.g. text-to-text, email-to-text, chat-to-text),interaction date and time stamp, interaction duration, terminationoriginator (e.g. first user device, second user device), interactionoutcome (e.g. purchase made, problem resolved, follow up required). In anext step, 4507 update interaction details to interaction database,interaction details comprising first user identifier, second useridentifier, interaction type (e.g. text-to-text, email-to-text,chat-to-text), interaction date and time stamp, interaction duration,termination originator (e.g. first user device, second user device),interaction outcome (e.g. purchase made, problem resolved, follow uprequired). In a next step, 4508 update interaction details to a CRMdatabase 185, interaction details comprising first user identifier,second user identifier, interaction type (e.g. text-to-text,email-to-text, chat-to-text), interaction date and time stamp,interaction duration, termination originator (e.g. first user device,second user device), interaction outcome (e.g. purchase made, problemresolved, follow up required).

FIG. 46 is a flow diagram showing the steps of an exemplary method forinteraction routing. In a first step, 4601 receive interaction routingrequest from interaction control server, interaction routing requestcomprising list of prior customer interactions with business, brand,product, or if available, competitor business, brand or product, productor service purchased, amount of purchase, prior communications (e.g.text, chat, email, snail mail, voice call, call center interaction,in-person, telegram or other communications means) with business orbusiness partner, attribution data associated with advertising campaignscustomer experienced including media channel (e.g. TV, social media,near-field-communication, in-store offers, targeted email), dates andtimes of ad campaigns, aggerate sales data associated with eachadvertising campaign, customer-specific sales outcome (e.g. madepurchased, deferred purchase, returned item). In a next step, 4602retrieve routable resource data from resource repository, routableresource data comprising target route information comprising target type(e.g. traditional phone-based agent, multi-media agents, AI-based ortraditional interactive voice response (“IVR”) systems, AI-driven chatbots or speech bots, or non-traditional resources for example fieldsales), target resource name (e.g. Jim Johnson), title (e.g. car salesadvocate), destination address (e.g. 360.867.5309). In a next step, 4603identify target availability. In a next step, 4604 determine optimalresource to route the interaction, optimal resource determination isachieved through use AI techniques known to those skilled in the artincluding deep learning algorithms and incorporate data comprised oftime-of-day, day-of-week, store hours, resource availability, servicelevel requirements, customer user profile data, previous customerinteraction and transactions, customer tiering structure, and businessCRM data. In a next step, 4605 send target route information (seconduser) to interaction control server, target route information targetroute information comprising target type (e.g. traditional phone-basedagent, multi-media agents, AI-based or traditional interactive voiceresponse (“IVR”) systems, AI-driven chat bots or speech bots, ornon-traditional resources for example field sales), target resource name(e.g. Jim Johnson), title (e.g. car sales advocate), destination address(e.g. 360.867.5309).

FIG. 47 is a flow diagram showing the steps of an exemplary method formedia translation. In a first step, 4701 receive target routeinformation from an interaction control server, target route informationcomprising target route information comprising target type (e.g.traditional phone-based agent, multi-media agents, AI-based ortraditional interactive voice response (“IVR”) systems, AI-driven chatbots or speech bots, or non-traditional resources for example fieldsales), target resource name (e.g. Jim Johnson), title (e.g. car salesadvocate), destination address (e.g. 360.867.5309). In a next step, 4702translate media connection type, media connection type comprisingtext-to-text, email-to-text, or chat-to-text. In a next step, 4703 setup interaction control legs between a first user device (e.g. customer)and a second user device (e.g. business user), interaction control legscomprising communication network sockets (e.g. IP/TCP) that enablecommunication between user devices. In a next step, 4704 mask userdevice endpoint information from a first user to a second user, and froma second user to a first user. In a next step, 4705 establish mediastream between a first user and a second user. In a next step, 4706convert media stream as required, converted media stream includeemail-to-text, chat-to-text such that customer user device (text, chat,email) can communicate with business user device (text) withoutnecessitating using a dedicated device or changing devices ordownloading and logging into a dedicated application on either customeruser device or business user device. In a next step, 4707 terminateconnection, termination request may come from either customer userdevice or business user device. In a next step, 4708 notify interactioncontrol server of terminated connection and provide interactioncompletion data, interaction completion data comprising first useridentifier, second user identifier, interaction type (e.g. text-to-text,email-to-text, chat-to-text), interaction date and time stamp,interaction duration, termination originator (e.g. first user device,second user device), interaction outcome (e.g. purchase made, problemresolved, follow up required).

FIG. 48 is a flow diagram showing the steps of an exemplary method forinteraction transfer from a first user and a second user, to a firstuser and a third user. In a first step, 4801 create interaction mediastreams between a first user and a second user as exemplified in flowdiagrams FIG. 45 , FIG. 46 , and FIG. 47 . In a next step, 4802 a seconduser device sends a request to an interaction control server to transferthe interaction to a third user device. In a next step, 4803 aninteraction control server initiates a transfer routing request to aninteraction routing engine. In a next step, 4804 an interaction routingengine receives transfer routing request from an interaction controlserver, transfer routing request comprising list of current and priorcustomer interactions with business, brand, product, or if available,competitor business, brand or product, product or service purchased,amount of purchase, prior communications (e.g. text, chat, email, snailmail, voice call, call center interaction, in-person, telegram or othercommunications means) with business or business partner, attributiondata associated with advertising campaigns customer experiencedincluding media channel (e.g. TV, social media,near-field-communication, in-store offers, targeted email), dates andtimes of ad campaigns, aggerate sales data associated with eachadvertising campaign, customer-specific sales outcome (e.g. madepurchased, deferred purchase, returned item). In a next step, 4805 aninteraction routing engine retrieves enterprise resource data fromresource repository, enterprise resource data comprising target routeinformation comprising target type (e.g. traditional phone-based agent,multi-media agents, AI-based or traditional interactive voice response(“IVR”) systems, AI-driven chat bots or speech bots, or non-traditionalresources for example field sales), target resource name (e.g. JimJohnson), title (e.g. car sales advocate), destination address (e.g.360.867.5309). In a next step, 4806 select enterprise resource totransfer route the interaction, enterprise resource determination isachieved through use AI techniques known to those skilled in the artincluding deep learning algorithms and incorporate data comprised oftime-of-day, day-of-week, store hours, resource availability, servicelevel requirements, customer user profile data, previous customerinteraction and transactions, customer tiering structure, and businessCRM data. In a next step, 4807 identify transfer target availabilitybased on calendar availability, if unavailable check next resource intarget list. In a next step, 4808 send target transfer route information(third user) from an interaction routing engine to an interactioncontrol server. In a next step, 4809 receive target transfer routeinformation at an interaction control server. In a next step, 4810translate media connection type, media connection type comprisingtext-to-text, email-to-text, or chat-to-text. In a next step, 4811 setup interaction control legs between a first user device (e.g. customer)and a second user device (e.g. business user), interaction control legscomprising communication network sockets (e.g. IP/TCP) that enablecommunication between user devices. In a next step, 4812 mask userdevice endpoint information from a first user to a third user, and froma third user to a first user. In a next step, 4813 establish mediastream between a first user and a third user. In a next step, 4814convert media stream as required, converted media stream includeemail-to-text, chat-to-text such that customer user device (text, chat,email) can communicate with business user device (text) withoutnecessitating using a dedicated device or changing devices ordownloading and logging into a dedicated application on either customeruser device or business user device. In a next step, 4815 terminateconnection, termination request may come from either customer userdevice or business user device. In a next step, 4816 update enterpriseCRM database with interaction completion data, interaction completiondata comprising first user identifier, second user identifier, thirduser identifier, interaction type (e.g. text-to-text, email-to-text,chat-to-text), interaction date and time stamp, interaction duration,termination originator (e.g. first user device, second user device),interaction outcome (e.g. purchase made, problem resolved, follow uprequired).

FIG. 49 is a flow diagram showing the steps of an exemplary method forvoice interaction from a first user to a voicemail of a second user; anda subsequent text interaction from a second user to a first user as aresult of the voice interaction. In a first step, 4901 create an inboundvoice call from a first user device whereas the first user device isassociated with a customer (e.g. customer user mobile device 130) to aninteraction control server associated with an enterprise and businessuser devices (e.g. business user mobile device 132 or other businessuser mobile device 134); inbound voice call is initiated through firstuser interaction with first user device, by clicking on text link, ortapping on picture element; inbound voice call data comprising user nameor number identifying user, origination address, product or service ofinterest, and associated advertising campaign. In a next step, 4902retrieve a first user profile data from a user profile database that maybe associated with a business' CRM system or other enterprise database,user profile customer profile data comprising user name, address, phonenumber, email, preferred contact method, historical purchaseinformation, customer tiering level (e.g. bronze, silver, gold),personal information (e.g. marital status, number of dependents, networth, interests/hobbies). In a next step, 4903 send an interactionrouting request from an interaction control server to a routing engine,interaction routing request comprising list of prior customerinteractions with business, brand, product, or if available competitorbusiness, brand or product, product or service purchased, amount ofpurchase, prior communications (e.g. text, chat, email, snail mail,voice call, call center interaction, in-person, telegram or othercommunications means) with business or business partner, attributiondata associated with advertising campaigns customer experiencedincluding media channel (e.g. TV, social media,near-field-communication, in-store offers, targeted email), dates andtimes of ad campaigns, aggerate sales data associated with eachadvertising campaign, customer-specific sales outcome (e.g. madepurchased, deferred purchase, returned item). In a next step, 4904 aninteraction routing engine receives routing request from an interactioncontrol server, routing request comprising list of current and priorcustomer interactions with business, brand, product, or if available,competitor business, brand or product, product or service purchased,amount of purchase, prior communications (e.g. text, chat, email, snailmail, voice call, call center interaction, in-person, telegram or othercommunications means) with business or business partner, attributiondata associated with advertising campaigns customer experiencedincluding media channel (e.g. TV, social media,near-field-communication, in-store offers, targeted email), dates andtimes of ad campaigns, aggerate sales data associated with eachadvertising campaign, customer-specific sales outcome (e.g. madepurchased, deferred purchase, returned item). In a next step, 4905 aninteraction routing engine retrieves enterprise resource data fromresource repository, enterprise resource data comprising target routeinformation comprising target type (e.g. traditional phone-based agent,AI-based such as natural language processing or traditional interactivevoice response (“IVR”) systems, or non-traditional resources for examplefield sales), target resource name (e.g. Jim Johnson), title (e.g. carsales advocate), destination address (e.g. 360.867.5309). In a nextstep, 4906 select enterprise resource to route the voice call,enterprise resource determination is achieved through use AI techniquesknown to those skilled in the art including deep learning algorithms andincorporate data comprised of time-of-day, day-of-week, store hours,resource availability, service level requirements, customer user profiledata, previous customer interaction and transactions, customer tieringstructure, and business CRM data. In a next step, 4907 identify targetavailability based on calendar availability, if enterprise resourceunavailable, go back to step 4906 and select next resource in targetlist. If resource is available in a next step, 4908 send target routeinformation from an interaction routing engine to an interaction controlserver. In a next step, 4909 receive target route information at aninteraction control server. In a next step, 4910 send voice call set uprequest from an interaction control server to a business user mobiledevice. In a next step, 4911 voice call set up request is accepted orrejected. If the call setup request is accepted by the business usermobile device, then in a next step, 4912 set up interaction control legsbetween a first user device (e.g. customer) and a second user device(e.g. business user), interaction control legs comprising communicationnetwork sockets (e.g. IP/TCP) that enable communication between userdevices. In a next step, 4913 mask (“ghost”) user device endpointinformation from a first user to a second user, and from a second userto a first user. In a next step, 4914 establish interaction (e.g. voice,text) media stream from a first user to a second user, and from a seconduser to a first user. In a next step, 4915 convert media stream asrequired, converted media stream include email-to-text, chat-to-textsuch that customer user device (text, chat, email) can communicate withbusiness user device (text) without necessitating using a dedicateddevice or changing devices or downloading and logging into a dedicatedapplication on either customer user device or business user device. In anext step, 4916 terminate connection, termination request may come fromeither first user (customer) device or second user (business) device. Ina next step, 4917 update enterprise CRM database with interactioncompletion data, interaction completion data comprising first useridentifier, second user identifier, interaction type (e.g.voice-to-voicemail, voice-to-voice, text-to-text, email-to-text,chat-to-text), interaction date and time stamp, interaction duration,termination originator (e.g. first user device, second user device),interaction outcome (e.g. purchase made, problem resolved, follow uprequired). If the call setup request is not accepted 4911 by thebusiness user mobile device, then in a next step, 4918 a determinationis made enterprise resources have been selected from a routable targetlist. If enterprise resources are not exhausted, then process returns tostep 4906. If enterprise resources are exhausted, then in a next step4919, an interaction control server routes call to first targeted second(business) user voicemail. In a next step 4920, send notification (e.g.text message) to business user mobile device. In a next step, 4921 asecond user (business) user mobile device sends an electronic messagethrough an interaction control server to first user (customer) mobiledevice requesting to connect. In a next step, 4922 first user mobiledevice either accepts or rejects the request to connect. If the firstuser accepts the request, then process continues to step 4912. If thefirst user device does not accept, then process continues to step 4916.

FIG. 50 is a flow diagram showing the steps of an exemplary method forauthentication of the TCPA compliant mobile device. In a first step,5001 the TCPA compliant mobile device 136 requests user to enter theirauthentication data that uniquely identifies them, the request may be inthe form of a log in screen to receive typed user input, a voice promptfrom an auditory device, a camera lens to receive visual data, or afluid receptacle to receive identifying fluids from a user, or any othermeans to collect uniquely identifying user data. In a next step, 5002the device user enters their authentication data (authenticationfactors) that uniquely identifies them, authentication data input mayinclude what the user knowns (e.g. user name, user password, personalidentification number, etc.), what the user has (e.g. mobile pushauthenticator, multi-factor authentication code generated from 3^(rd)party device such as GEMALTO™, GOOGLE AUTHENTICATOR™, or other device),something the user is (e.g. biometric data from retinal scan,fingerprint, DNA sample and the like), or some other verificationtechnique. In a next step, 5003 the secure mobile device sendsauthentication request along with authentication data to the controller4218. In a next step, 5004 interaction control server receives 4218authentication request along with authentication data. In a next step,5005 the interaction control server retrieves business user profile data4220 from database 155 that may be associated with a business' CRMsystem or other enterprise database, business user profile datacomprising user name, address, phone number, job/position title, levelof authorization available to business user, level of authorization mayinclude systems (e.g. CRM, payroll, sales, human resources) or data(e.g. sales, customer, account) accessible by a business user. In a nextstep, 5006 the user is authenticated which may include comparing theauthentication data, such as username, one-time-password, retinal scandata or the like, with corresponding data stored in user profiledatabase or 3rd party credential service provider or similar techniqueto those skilled in the art. In a next step, 5007 if the user is a validuser, then the TCPA compliant mobile device 136 is enabled 5008 to sendor receive electronic communications through the controller 4218; if theuser is determined invalid, the TCPA compliant mobile device is disabled5009 to send or receive any electronic communication until a successfulauthentication occurs.

FIG. 51 is a method diagram illustrating routing of communicationsbetween a customer and one or more agents, according to an embodiment. Aconsumer mobile device running an integrated advertisement andcommunication application 5101 comprises a unique tracking ID. Thatunique tracking ID allows the advertisement and communicationapplication to log customer information passively and actively 5102 andthen is stored in a customer CRM database 5104 to a customer profilematching the unique tracking ID. During the use or various purposesinvolving the advertisement and communication application, such as a taptext link or interaction, a lookup of the user's data using the uniqueID 5103 to better inform sales and business agents with data about theinteraction and customer. For example, during the use of a tap textapplication, a lookup sequence is initiated 5105 whereby agent locations(users) and route types (sequential, round robin, percentage) 5106 arefirst identified. Agents may be contacted in a prioritized manneraccording to various parameters such as expertise, location,performance, scheduling, etc. Customer preferences may be considered asto a preferred type of communication regardless of the initial method ofcontact. Customer data such as location or hobbies may allow agents tostrike up more personalized conversations with the customer to form astronger relationship thus increasing sales. Typically, a round robin isperformed 5108 until either an agent responds 5107, or the list ofpossible agents is exhausted and the customer will be routed to thevoicemail on the primary agent's device 5110. Whether or not an agentmakes contact with a customer 5109, messages 5112 such as SMS messageswill be generated providing content as described in previous figures.Additionally, details and other telemetry will be sent to the agent ofhighest priority 5111. That agent may be any agent in the chain thatactually made contact with the customer, or an agent that received avoicemail from the customer. Upon completion of a conversation, or lackthereof, recorded audio and other details and reports are stored 5113with the customer's profile in the CRM database 5104. At all times,uniquely identifying contact information, e.g., phone number, email,etc., of the customer and agents are hidden from each other regardlessof which communication channel is used. Furthermore, the dynamic routingof an interaction is pulled from the mobile application via a webserviceaccording to one aspect.

FIG. 52 is a method diagram illustrating conversion to SMS between acustomer and one or more agents, according to an embodiment. Thisdiagram illustrates a method for converting communications to text.Specifically, when a customer is presented with an option for a chat, inthis case meaning a web-based chat, and he or she chooses to chat, allcommunications from the customer are converted to SMS texts and sentdirectly to an agent without the agent needing the application. The samemay happen for emails, whereby a media translation system converts SMStexts from the agent to emails sent to the customer.

A consumer mobile device running an integrated advertisement andcommunication application 5201 comprises a unique tracking ID. Thatunique tracking ID allows the advertisement and communicationapplication to log customer information passively and actively 5202 andthen is stored in a customer CRM database 5204 to a customer profilematching the unique tracking ID. During the use or various purposesinvolving the advertisement and communication application, such as a taptext link or interaction, a lookup of the user's data using the uniqueID 5203 to better inform sales and business agents with data about theinteraction and customer. For example, during the use of a tap textapplication, a user may be presented with an option for chat, email,and/or text 5205. If the user chooses email or text, a media translationsystem will receive, convert 5207, 5208, and facilitate a conversationbetween the user and an agent. The agent will not need to have anyapplication or special software to participate in the conversation asall incoming communications from the user 5201 are converted to SMStexts for the agent. If the consumer requests communication with anagent via text, the media translation system will relay those messages5206, keeping both numbers anonymous. A lookup sequence is initiated5209 whereby agent locations (users) and route types (sequential, roundrobin, percentage) are first identified. Agents may be contacted in aprioritized manner according to various parameters such as expertise,location, performance, scheduling, etc. Customer preferences may beconsidered as to a preferred type of communication regardless of theinitial method of contact. Customer data such as location or hobbies mayallow agents to strike up more personalized conversations with thecustomer to form a stronger relationship thus increasing sales.Typically, a round robin is performed 5211 until either an agentresponds 5210, or the list of possible agents is exhausted and thecustomer will be routed to the voicemail on the primary agent's device5213. Whether or not an agent makes contact with a customer 5109,messages 5215 such as SMS messages will be generated providing contentas described in previous figures. Additionally, details and othertelemetry will be sent to the agent of highest priority 5214. That agentmay be any agent in the chain that actually made contact with thecustomer, or an agent that received a voicemail from the customer. Uponcompletion of a conversation 5212, or lack thereof, recorded audio andother details and reports are stored 5216 with the customer's profile inthe CRM database 5204. At all times, uniquely identifying contactinformation, e.g., phone number, email, etc., of the customer and agentsare hidden from each other regardless of which communication channel isused. Furthermore, the dynamic routing of an interaction is pulled fromthe mobile application via a webservice according to one aspect.

Hardware Architecture

Generally, the techniques disclosed herein may be implemented onhardware or a combination of software and hardware. For example, theymay be implemented in an operating system kernel, in a separate userprocess, in a library package bound into network applications, on aspecially constructed machine, on an application-specific integratedcircuit (“ASIC”), or on a network interface card.

Software/hardware hybrid implementations of at least some of the aspectsdisclosed herein may be implemented on a programmable network-residentmachine (which should be understood to include intermittently connectednetwork-aware machines) selectively activated or reconfigured by acomputer program stored in memory. Such network devices may havemultiple network interfaces that may be configured or designed toutilize different types of network communication protocols. A generalarchitecture for some of these machines may be described herein in orderto illustrate one or more exemplary means by which a given unit offunctionality may be implemented. According to specific aspects, atleast some of the features or functionalities of the various aspectsdisclosed herein may be implemented on one or more general-purposecomputers associated with one or more networks, such as for example anend-user computer system, a client computer, a network server or otherserver system, a mobile computing device (e.g., tablet computing device,mobile phone, smartphone, laptop, or other appropriate computingdevice), a consumer electronic device, a music player, or any othersuitable electronic device, router, switch, or other suitable device, orany combination thereof. In at least some aspects, at least some of thefeatures or functionalities of the various aspects disclosed herein maybe implemented in one or more virtualized computing environments (e.g.,network computing clouds, virtual machines hosted on one or morephysical computing machines, or other appropriate virtual environments).

Referring now to FIG. 16 , there is shown a block diagram depicting anexemplary computing device 10 suitable for implementing at least aportion of the features or functionalities disclosed herein. Computingdevice 10 may be, for example, any one of the computing machines listedin the previous paragraph, or indeed any other electronic device capableof executing software- or hardware-based instructions according to oneor more programs stored in memory. Computing device 10 may be configuredto communicate with a plurality of other computing devices, such asclients or servers, over communications networks such as a wide areanetwork a metropolitan area network, a local area network, a wirelessnetwork, the Internet, or any other network, using known protocols forsuch communication, whether wireless or wired.

In one embodiment, computing device 10 includes one or more centralprocessing units (CPU) 12, one or more interfaces 15, and one or morebusses 14 (such as a peripheral component interconnect (PCI) bus). Whenacting under the control of appropriate software or firmware, CPU 12 maybe responsible for implementing specific functions associated with thefunctions of a specifically configured computing device or machine. Forexample, in at least one embodiment, a computing device 10 may beconfigured or designed to function as a server system utilizing CPU 12,local memory 11 and/or remote memory 16, and interface(s) 15. In atleast one embodiment, CPU 12 may be caused to perform one or more of thedifferent types of functions and/or operations under the control ofsoftware modules or components, which for example, may include anoperating system and any appropriate applications software, drivers, andthe like.

CPU 12 may include one or more processors 13 such as, for example, aprocessor from one of the Intel, ARM, Qualcomm, and AMD families ofmicroprocessors. In some embodiments, processors 13 may includespecially designed hardware such as application-specific integratedcircuits (ASICs), electrically erasable programmable read-only memories(EEPROMs), field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), and so forth, forcontrolling operations of computing device 10. In a specific embodiment,a local memory 11 (such as non-volatile random access memory (RAM)and/or read-only memory (ROM), including for example one or more levelsof cached memory) may also form part of CPU 12. However, there are manydifferent ways in which memory may be coupled to system 10. Memory 11may be used for a variety of purposes such as, for example, cachingand/or storing data, programming instructions, and the like. It shouldbe further appreciated that CPU 12 may be one of a variety ofsystem-on-a-chip (SOC) type hardware that may include additionalhardware such as memory or graphics processing chips, such as a QUALCOMMSNAPDRAGON™ or SAMSUNG EXYNOS™ CPU as are becoming increasingly commonin the art, such as for use in mobile devices or integrated devices.

As used herein, the term “processor” is not limited merely to thoseintegrated circuits referred to in the art as a processor, a mobileprocessor, or a microprocessor, but broadly refers to a microcontroller,a microcomputer, a programmable logic controller, anapplication-specific integrated circuit, and any other programmablecircuit.

In one embodiment, interfaces 15 are provided as network interface cards(NICs). Generally, NICs control the sending and receiving of datapackets over a computer network; other types of interfaces 15 may forexample support other peripherals used with computing device 10. Amongthe interfaces that may be provided are Ethernet interfaces, frame relayinterfaces, cable interfaces, DSL interfaces, token ring interfaces,graphics interfaces, and the like. In addition, various types ofinterfaces may be provided such as, for example, universal serial bus(USB), Serial, Ethernet, FIREWIRE™, THUNDERBOLT™, PCI, parallel, radiofrequency (RF), BLUETOOTH™, near-field communications (e.g., usingnear-field magnetics), 802.11 (Wi-Fi), frame relay, TCP/IP, ISDN, fastEthernet interfaces, Gigabit Ethernet interfaces, Serial ATA (SATA) orexternal SATA (ESATA) interfaces, high-definition multimedia interface(HDMI), digital visual interface (DVI), analog or digital audiointerfaces, asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) interfaces, high-speedserial interface (HSSI) interfaces, Point of Sale (POS) interfaces,fiber data distributed interfaces (FDDIs), and the like. Generally, suchinterfaces 15 may include physical ports appropriate for communicationwith appropriate media. In some cases, they may also include anindependent processor (such as a dedicated audio or video processor, asis common in the art for high-fidelity AN hardware interfaces) and, insome instances, volatile and/or non-volatile memory (e.g., RAM).

Although the system shown in FIG. 16 illustrates one specificarchitecture for a computing device 10 for implementing one or more ofthe embodiments described herein, it is by no means the only devicearchitecture on which at least a portion of the features and techniquesdescribed herein may be implemented. For example, architectures havingone or any number of processors 13 may be used, and such processors 13may be present in a single device or distributed among any number ofdevices. In one embodiment, a single processor 13 handles communicationsas well as routing computations, while in other embodiments a separatededicated communications processor may be provided. In variousembodiments, different types of features or functionalities may beimplemented in a system that includes a client device (such as a tabletdevice or smartphone running client software) and server systems (suchas a server system described in more detail below).

Regardless of network device configuration, the system may employ one ormore memories or memory modules (such as, for example, remote memoryblock 16 and local memory 11) configured to store data, programinstructions for the general-purpose network operations, or otherinformation relating to the functionality of the embodiments describedherein (or any combinations of the above). Program instructions maycontrol execution of or comprise an operating system and/or one or moreapplications, for example. Memory 16 or memories 11, 16 may also beconfigured to store data structures, configuration data, encryptiondata, historical system operations information, or any other specific orgeneric non-program information described herein.

Because such information and program instructions may be employed toimplement one or more systems or methods described herein, at least somenetwork device embodiments may include nontransitory machine-readablestorage media, which, for example, may be configured or designed tostore program instructions, state information, and the like forperforming various operations described herein. Examples of suchnontransitory machine-readable storage media include, but are notlimited to, magnetic media such as hard disks, floppy disks, andmagnetic tape; optical media such as CD-ROM disks; magneto-optical mediasuch as optical disks, and hardware devices that are speciallyconfigured to store and perform program instructions, such as read-onlymemory devices (ROM), flash memory (as is common in mobile devices andintegrated systems), solid state drives (SSD) and “hybrid SSD” storagedrives that may combine physical components of solid state and hard diskdrives in a single hardware device (as are becoming increasingly commonin the art with regard to personal computers), memristor memory, randomaccess memory (RAM), and the like. It should be appreciated that suchstorage means may be integral and non-removable (such as RAM hardwaremodules that may be soldered onto a motherboard or otherwise integratedinto an electronic device), or they may be removable such as swappableflash memory modules (such as “thumb drives” or other removable mediadesigned for rapidly exchanging physical storage devices),“hot-swappable” hard disk drives or solid state drives, removableoptical storage discs, or other such removable media, and that suchintegral and removable storage media may be utilized interchangeably.Examples of program instructions include both object code, such as maybe produced by a compiler, machine code, such as may be produced by anassembler or a linker, byte code, such as may be generated by forexample a JAVA™ compiler and may be executed using a Java virtualmachine or equivalent, or files containing higher level code that may beexecuted by the computer using an interpreter (for example, scriptswritten in Python, Perl, Ruby, Groovy, or any other scripting language).

In some embodiments, systems may be implemented on a standalonecomputing system. Referring now to FIG. 17 , there is shown a blockdiagram depicting a typical exemplary architecture of one or moreembodiments or components thereof on a standalone computing system.Computing device 20 includes processors 21 that may run software thatcarry out one or more functions or applications of embodiments, such asfor example a client application 24. Processors 21 may carry outcomputing instructions under control of an operating system 22 such as,for example, a version of MICROSOFT WINDOWS™ operating system, APPLEOSX™ or iOS™ operating systems, some variety of the Linux operatingsystem, ANDROID™ operating system, or the like. In many cases, one ormore shared services 23 may be operable in system 20, and may be usefulfor providing common services to client applications 24. Services 23 mayfor example be WINDOWS™ services, user-space common services in a Linuxenvironment, or any other type of common service architecture used withoperating system 21. Input devices 28 may be of any type suitable forreceiving user input, including for example a keyboard, touchscreen,microphone (for example, for voice input), mouse, touchpad, trackball,or any combination thereof. Output devices 27 may be of any typesuitable for providing output to one or more users, whether remote orlocal to system 20, and may include for example one or more screens forvisual output, speakers, printers, or any combination thereof. Memory 25may be random-access memory having any structure and architecture knownin the art, for use by processors 21, for example to run software.Storage devices 26 may be any magnetic, optical, mechanical, memristor,or electrical storage device for storage of data in digital form (suchas those described above, referring to FIG. 16 ). Examples of storagedevices 26 include flash memory, magnetic hard drive, CD-ROM, and/or thelike.

In some embodiments, systems may be implemented on a distributedcomputing network, such as one having any number of clients and/orservers. Referring now to FIG. 18 , there is shown a block diagramdepicting an exemplary architecture 30 for implementing at least aportion of a system on a distributed computing network. According to theembodiment, any number of clients 33 may be provided. Each client 33 mayrun software for implementing client-side portions; clients may comprisea system 20 such as that illustrated in FIG. 17 . In addition, anynumber of servers 32 may be provided for handling requests received fromone or more clients 33. Clients 33 and servers 32 may communicate withone another via one or more electronic networks 31, which may be invarious embodiments any of the Internet, a wide area network, a mobiletelephony network (such as CDMA or GSM cellular networks), a wirelessnetwork (such as Wi-Fi, WiMAX, LTE, and so forth), or a local areanetwork (or indeed any network topology known in the art. Networks 31may be implemented using any known network protocols, including forexample wired and/or wireless protocols.

In addition, in some embodiments, servers 32 may call external services37 when needed to obtain additional information, or to refer toadditional data concerning a particular call. Communications withexternal services 37 may take place, for example, via one or morenetworks 31. In various embodiments, external services 37 may compriseweb-enabled services or functionality related to or installed on thehardware device itself. For example, in an embodiment where clientapplications 24 are implemented on a smartphone or other electronicdevice, client applications 24 may obtain information stored in a serversystem 32 in the cloud or on an external service 37 deployed on one ormore of a particular enterprise's or user's premises.

In some embodiments, clients 33 or servers 32 (or both) may make use ofone or more specialized services or appliances that may be deployedlocally or remotely across one or more networks 31. For example, one ormore databases 34 may be used or referred to by one or more embodiments.It should be understood by one having ordinary skill in the art thatdatabases 34 may be arranged in a wide variety of architectures andusing a wide variety of data access and manipulation means. For example,in various embodiments one or more databases 34 may comprise arelational database system using a SQL, while others may comprise analternative data storage technology such as those referred to in the artas “NoSQL” (for example, HADOOP CASSANDRA™, GOOGLE BIGTABLE™, and soforth). In some embodiments, variant database architectures such ascolumn-oriented databases, in-memory databases, clustered databases,distributed databases, or even flat file data repositories may be used.It will be appreciated by one having ordinary skill in the art that anycombination of known or future database technologies may be used asappropriate, unless a specific database technology or a specificarrangement of components is specified for a particular embodimentherein. Moreover, it should be appreciated that the term “database” asused herein may refer to a physical database machine, a cluster ofmachines acting as a single database system, or a logical databasewithin an overall database management system. Unless a specific meaningis specified for a given use of the term “database”, it should beconstrued to mean any of these senses of the word, all of which areunderstood as a plain meaning of the term “database” by those havingordinary skill in the art.

Similarly, most embodiments may make use of one or more security systems36 and configuration systems 35. Security and configuration managementare common information technology (IT) and web functions, and someamount of each are generally associated with any IT or web systems. Itshould be understood by one having ordinary skill in the art that anyconfiguration or security subsystems known in the art now or in thefuture may be used in conjunction with embodiments without limitation,unless a specific security 36 or configuration system 35 or approach isspecifically required by the description of any specific embodiment.

FIG. 19 shows an exemplary overview of a computer system 40 as may beused in any of the various locations throughout the system. It isexemplary of any computer that may execute code to process data. Variousmodifications and changes may be made to computer system 40 withoutdeparting from the broader scope of the system and method disclosedherein. Central processor unit (CPU) 41 is connected to bus 42, to whichbus is also connected memory 43, nonvolatile memory 44, display 47,input/output (I/O) unit 48, and network interface card (NIC) 53. I/Ounit 48 may, typically, be connected to keyboard 49, pointing device 50,hard disk 52, and real-time clock 51. NIC 53 connects to network 54,which may be the Internet or a local network, which local network may ormay not have connections to the Internet. Also shown as part of system40 is power supply unit 45 connected, in this example, to a mainalternating current (AC) supply 46. Not shown are batteries that couldbe present, and many other devices and modifications that are well knownbut are not applicable to the specific novel functions of the currentsystem and method disclosed herein. It should be appreciated that someor all components illustrated may be combined, such as in variousintegrated applications, for example Qualcomm or Samsungsystem-on-a-chip (SOC) devices, or whenever it may be appropriate tocombine multiple capabilities or functions into a single hardware device(for instance, in mobile devices such as smartphones, video gameconsoles, in-vehicle computer systems such as navigation or multimediasystems in automobiles, or other integrated hardware devices).

In various embodiments, functionality for implementing systems ormethods may be distributed among any number of client and/or servercomponents. For example, various software modules may be implemented forperforming various functions in connection with the various embodiments,and such modules may be variously implemented to run on server and/orclient components.

The skilled person will be aware of a range of possible modifications ofthe various embodiments described above. Accordingly, the presentinvention is defined by the claims and their equivalents.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for messaging-triggered sales leadredirection with enhanced privacy protection, comprising the steps of:upon receiving an initial trigger at a mobile device connected to anetwork, the initial trigger comprising a marketing campaign identity:generating a trigger message using a trigger application operating onthe mobile device, the trigger message comprising device metadata, thedevice metadata comprising an identity of the mobile device, a locationof the mobile device, an identity of a trigger application on the mobiledevice, and the marketing campaign identity; and sending the triggermessage from the mobile device to an interaction control serverconnected to the network, the interaction control server comprising anon-volatile data storage device on which is stored a marketing campaigndatabase and a multimedia message database; upon receiving the triggermessage at the interaction control server: retrieving a marketingcampaign associated with the device metadata using the interactioncontrol server, the marketing campaign comprising marketing metadatacomprising information about products or services associated with themarketing campaign; generating an augmented trigger comprising amarketing message using the interaction control server; generating atargeted multimedia message from the device metadata and the marketingmetadata using the interaction control server, the targeted multimediamessage comprising an active call-to-action component comprisingactivation metadata; storing the targeted multimedia message in themultimedia message database; and sending the augmented trigger from theinteraction control server to the mobile device; upon receiving theaugmented trigger message at the mobile device: generating an augmentedtrigger message using the trigger application operating on the mobiledevice, the augmented trigger message comprising the marketing campaignidentity and an authorization for a media gateway server to receive anduse private information about the mobile device or about the user of themobile device; and sending the augmented trigger message to a mediagateway server connected to the network; upon receiving the augmentedtrigger message at the media gateway server: retrieving the multimediamessage from the interaction control server using the media gatewayserver using the authorization; sending the multimedia message from themedia gateway server to the mobile device via the network; and uponreceiving the multimedia message at the mobile device, displaying themultimedia message with its active call-to-action component on themobile device.
 2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the stepsof: detecting an interaction with the active call-to-action componentusing the trigger application operating on the mobile device; generatingan interaction message using the mobile device; sending the interactionmessage to the media gateway server; and upon receiving the interactionmessage at the media gateway server, connecting the mobile device to asales representative associated with the marketing campaign using themedia gateway server.
 3. The method of claim 2, wherein the devicemetadata further comprises user information comprising data associatedwith a user of the mobile device.
 4. The method of claim 3, wherein theuser information is provided to the sales representative prior to, or atthe time of, the connection with the mobile device.
 5. The method ofclaim 3, wherein the user information comprises an identity of the user.6. The method of claim 5, wherein the user information comprisescredentials of the user and the identity of the user is confirmed usingthe credentials.
 7. The method of claim 6, wherein the identity of theuser is confirmed by the media gateway prior to connecting the mobiledevice to the sales representative.
 8. The method of claim 6, whereinthe credentials comprise either user-provided information, biometricinformation, or certificate information.